Antibiotic Resistance in Acinetobacter and Associated Treatment Strategies

Acinetobacter infections pose a substantial burden on public health, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically classifying carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter as an urgent threat to public health with 8500 cases annually, 700 deaths, and USD 281 million in associated healthcare costs in the United States alone. These data coupled with the sparsity of information elucidating the pathophysiology of Acinetobacter, the lack of novel antibiotics in the developmental pipeline to treat Acinetobacter infections and the continued occurrence of multidrug-, extensively drug-, or even pandrug-resistant isolates from clinical settings constitute a public health crisis warranting immediate attention. This Special Issue therefore includes works describing the clinical treatment and genomic surveillance of Acinetobacter isolates causing infection, especially carbapenem-resistant isolates. This Special Issue additionally explores this bacterium's resistance to antibiotics and disinfectants, ability to persist in the clinical setting and adaptation to environmental changes. The underlying resistance mechanisms allowing Acinetobacter to survive stressors all play a role in its pathogenicity and are valuable in understanding and treating this critical pathogen.