Frequency of resistance gene, qacEΔ1 to quaternary ammonium compounds in clinical isolatedAcinetobacter baumannii from Hospitals of Qazvin, Iran

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the important agent of hospital infections. In recent years, there are several report about frequency of resistant Acinetobacter against quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) in the clinical unit of hospitals in the world. It has used different antiseptics and disinfectants for preventing hospital infections in clinical centers and hospitals. QACs like benzalkonium has widely used as hospital disinfectant. The mechanism of resistance to disinfectants occures by resistance genes type qacEΔ1 that is isolated from gram negative bacteria. As the importance of preventing hospital infection due to Acinetobacter, the aim of this study, was to determine prevalence of resistance gene, qacEΔ1to disinfectant in the clinical isolated acinetobacter baumannii.Totally, 141 isolated Acinetobacter baumannii were studied from specimens of hospital of Qazvin Province from Sep 2015 to Sep 2016. The isolated were characterized as Acinetobacterbaumannii via standard methods. Then, all isolated were studied using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing for qacEΔ1 resistance geneIsolated acinetobacter of trachea, urine, and blood were 82(58%), 23(16%), 14(9%) respectively from all specimens. Also, 84 (59%) isolated have qacEΔ1 gene and the most frequency of isolated Acinetobacter baumannii that contain qacEΔ1gene were 50(59%) in ICU. The result of this study showed the significant resistance to the disinfectants in the evaluated hospitals.Thus, more attention to Acinetobacter baumannii as an important agent in the hospital infection and applying disinfectant is necessary.

Keywords:

Acinetobacter baumannii , Quaternary ammonium compounds , qacEΔ1gene