Detection of Carbapenemases Emerging in Acinetobacter baumannii Clinical Isolates by Modified Hodge Test

This bacterium has the propensity to acquire resistance rapidly to various classes of antimicrobial agents and so shows high rates of resistance to multiple antimicrobial agents [1, 2]. There is ongoing controversy as to whether carbapenem resistance results in an increased risk of mortality in patients infected with A. baumannii. The emergence of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii is a significant public health concern as there are limited alternatives for successful treatment [2, 3]. Resistance to carbapenem is mostly due to the production of enzymescarbapenemases that hydrolysed carbapenems and other βlactams. Carbapenemase enzymes fall into Ambler classification -A, B and D [4]. Unfortunately, resistance to carbapenems in A. baumannii is hard to detect by the routine disc diffusion method used by many microbiology laboratories.