Acinetobacter baumannii: An Emerging Pathogen

Dear Colleagues,

Acinetobacter baumannii is one the commonest bacteria occurring ubiquitously in nature. This Gram-negative coccobacillus has a wide range of survival strategies in nature ranging from dry surfaces through moist surfaces to skin and mucous membranes to even intra-cellular strategies, which makes this bacterium unique in many ways. During the late 1970s through to the 1990s, this bacterium was considered as an opportunistic pathogen, and thereafter, slowly over the next three decades, Acinetobacter baumannii evolved its survival and infecting strategies, and today, it is considered as a classical emerging pathogen. This pathogen has many unique features that make it highly resistant to antimicrobial agents, including its capabilities of gaining or donating genes to neighboring bacterial pathogens. Today, about 11%–13% of all hospital-acquired infections are caused by Acinetobacter baumannii worldwide. Types of A. baumannii infections include wound infection, sepsis, skin and soft-tissue infections, peritoneal infection, respiratory tract infection, especially ventilator-associated, nosocomial pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and meningitis. People with impaired immune systems, critically ill, and those with existing chronic, debilitating diseases are the most vulnerable. Along with the general population, the combat against wound infection with multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii is a major concern among military populations. Therefore, vigorous and joint research efforts are required to combat this emerging pathogen. A. baumannii is a member of ESKAPE pathogens (others are Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp.)  that are prioritized worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO), United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Department of Defense (DOD) have considered A. baumannii as a priority 1 pathogen.

We invite you to submit related original research and review articles to the Special Issue of ‘Acinetobacter baumannii: An Emerging Pathogen’. Potential topics include, but not limited to, the following:

• Epidemiology: the regional patterns of A. baumannii occurrence, such as current trends among geographic distribution and molecular epidemiology.
• Microbiology: habitats and growth conditions, the genetic diversity and genetics of spread, virulence factors of A. baumannii.
• Antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
• Antimicrobial resistance and mechanisms in A. baumannii.
• Clinical epidemiology of A. baumannii in clinics and healthcare units. 
• A. baumannii pathogenesis and the clinical correlations. 
• Diagnostic strategies for the development of laboratory tests to detect A. baumannii, or diagnostic lab-on-chip.
• Prevention strategies for controlling A. baumannii contamination.
• Concepts and outcome(s) of vaccine and vaccine efficacy and samples of antibodies in patients. 
• Treatment strategies, involving antimicrobial agents (both, old and new) or their combinations used to combat A. baumannii (both, in vitro and in vivo), PK/PD studies, and identifying factors that may impact treatment outcomes.
• Public health policy: outbreak response, public health messaging, environmental monitoring, and policy evaluation.

Prof. Dr. Suresh G. Joshi
Prof. Dr. Robert A. Bonomo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Acinetobacter baumannii
• Acinetobacter baumannii virulence factors
• animal model(s) of infection
• antimicrobial agents, and their synergism
• carbapenem resistance
• immune response and antibody evaluation
• multi-drug resistance
• nosocomial infection
• surgical and wound infection
• transferable genes
• vaccine and vaccine development