Aim: We sought to investigate the genetic epidemiological relatedness of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) strains of a suspected outbreak in a Lebanese tertiary care hospital to implement necessary infection prevention and control measures. Methods: Twenty-eight nonduplicate CRAB isolates detected among hospitalized patients between January 2016 and July 2017 were studied by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing analyses. Results: Twenty-seven isolates harbored blaOXA-23, of which one also carried blaNDM-1. The isolates distributed temporally in two presumably episodes were stratified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis into many clusters. Although several clones have become endemic in the hospital, we have rapidly implemented appropriate infection prevention and control measures, achieving full eradication from August 2017 to November 2019. Conclusion: We have successfully investigated and controlled a polyclonal outbreak of OXA-23 producing ST2 CRAB.
Keywords: Lebanon; carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii; epidemiology; hospital outbreak; intensive care unit; molecular typing.