WEDNESDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Outbreaks of mainly hospital-acquired Acinetobacter baumannii infection are an increasing problem due to difficulty in infection control and antibiotic resistance, according to a review of current control and treatment options published in the December issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Drosos E. Karageorgopoulos, M.D., and Matthew E. Falagas, M.D., from the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens, Greece, note that A. baumannii can be found in environmental sources such as soil and foods, and infections typically occur in hospitalized patients, particularly critically ill ones. Control of these outbreaks is difficult, they write, but infection control measures and administrative guidance and support can contain outbreaks.

The authors also note that about 30 percent of strains are multidrug resistant, and outbreaks of drug-resistant bacteria are a growing public health problem. Effective antibiotic treatment is very important, with carbapenems being the preferred drugs, although the bacteria are becoming resistant in many areas. Sulbactam can also be used for serious infections but is becoming less effective against carbapenem-resistant infections. Studies have suggested that polymyxins, minocycline, and tigecycline are also effective, they write.

"Despite the increasing rates of antimicrobial drug resistance in A. baumannii and in other Gram-negative bacteria, drugs that are currently in the pipeline against this category of pathogens do not seem to confer a major advancement compared with readily available agents," Karageorgopoulos and Falagas write. "Thus, research to assess the clinical usefulness of various investigational agents should be encouraged."

Falagas reports having financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

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