NC_010400:3271722 Acinetobacter baumannii, complete genome
Host Lineage: Acinetobacter baumannii; Acinetobacter; Moraxellaceae; Pseudomonadales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This strain is responsible for community-acquired infections, and is sensitive to antibiotics. It was isolated from body lice collected from homeless people living in France. Since the louse's internal body is usually sterile, the presence of this bacteria can only be due to cryptic bacteremic episodes. This bacterium is commonly isolated from the hospital environment and hospitalized patients. It is an aquatic organism, and is often cultured from liquid medical samples such as respiratory secretions, wounds, and urine. Acinetobacter also colonizes irrigating solutions and intravenous solutions. Although it has low virulence, it is capable of causing infection. Most isolates recovered from patients represent colonization rather than infection. When infections do occur, they usually occur in the blood, or in organs with a high fluid content, such as the lungs or urinary tract. Infections by this organism are becoming increasingly problematic due to the high number of resistance genes found in clinical isolates. Some strains are now resistant to all known antibiotics. Most of these genes appear to have been transferred horizontally from other organisms.