Isolation and 16S rRNA Sequencing of Clinical Isolates of Acinetobacter baumanii

Acinetobacter spp. are gram-negative aerobic coccobacilli that are ubiquitous in nature, persistent in the hospital environment, and cause a variety of opportunistic nosocomial infections (Bergogne-Berezin et al, 1996). They cause various types of human infections. Of the currently known 31 Acinetobacter species, Acinetobacter baumannii is the most prevalent in clinical specimens. A number of species of Acinetobacter are associated with human infection yet A. baumannii is generally regarded as the major pathogen (Chang et al., 2005; Van den Broek et al., 2006). Numerous outbreaks caused by Acinetobacter baumannii have been reported, which are of great concern in clinical settings.