Extract

TO THE EDITOR—The emergence of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase–1 (NDM-1) in India, Pakistan, and the UK has sparked great fear of the threat posed by resistant microbial strains and by the use of antibiotics worldwide [1]. Thus far, NDM-1 carbapenemase has been detected in several countries in a diverse group of bacteria. Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as one of the most troublesome pathogens for health care institutions globally. Its clinical significance has been propelled by its remarkable capability to upregulate or acquire resistance determinants, making it one of the most important organisms threatening the current antibiotic era. In Chinese hospitals, A. baumannii is the most common genus of carbapenem-resistant bacteria [2]. We screened carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii for the presence of blaNDM-1 and successfully detected a blaNDM-1–positive strain, to our knowledge the first such strain of A. baumannii isolated in China. In addition to carbapenem, this isolate is resistant to various types of antibiotics—consistent with what has been observed in other countries [1].

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