ABSTRACT
Acinetobacter species are aerobic gram-negative bacilli that can cause healthcare-associated infections and can survive for prolonged periods in the environment. Also on the hands of healthcare workers, infection due to Acinetobacter species is a major challenge within the health care facilities and the community in general due to their high drug resistance. The study was aimed at detecting multi drug resistance and multi antibiotics resistance index (MARI) of acinetobacter baumannii isolated from hospitals in Port Harcourt meteropolis in Rivers State, Nigeria. The cross sectional study sampled randomly; as urine and wound swab samples were collected from patients. Acinetobacter spp was isolated using standard microbiological methods. Identification of A. baumannii isolates were done using Phynotypic methods such as culture on Lead Acinetobacter medium and conventional biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done by Kirby Bauer’s disk diffusion method under Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, 2013) guide Suspect Acinetobacter species were further identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequence typing methods. The results of confirmatory sequence typing of isolates showed that 9 of suspect Acinetobacter spp were A. baumannii. The results of this finding showed presence of A. baumannii species resistant to conventional antibiotics. All isolates demonstrated.MDR and XDR. MARI was high. (>0.2) indicating MDR and high risk. This study established high rate of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumanii. There is need for improved sanitary working condition and proper patients’ management to reduce the spread of this health care associated infection as well as a Search for new therapeutic alternative and policies to control the use of antibiotics.