A study published in Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society examined trends of Acinetobacter baumannii resistance among U.S. children.
Researchers studied antimicrobial susceptibility data from The Surveillance Network. They phenotypically identified antibiotic resistance in A. baumannii isolates in children up to 17 years of age, between January 1999 and July 2012.
The study shows the crude proportion of cephalosporin-resistant A. baumannii increased from 13.2 percent in 1999 to 23.4 percent in 2012, with a peak of 32.5 percent in 2008. The proportion of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii increased from 0.6 percent in 1999 to 6.1 percent in 2012, with a peak of 12.7 percent in 2008.
From 1999 to 2012, the proportion of cephalosporin-resistant A. baumannii increased each year by 3 percent and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii increased each year by 8 percent.