Colorex Acinetobacter

Focus on Acinetobacter

Common bacteria widely spread in the nature, Acinetobacter has the capacity to survive in dry as well as moist environments. It becomes a source of infection in hospital environment when colonizing medical equipments, human skin and sometimes foodstuff. Acinetobacter species are generally not pathogenic for healthy people but are life threatening in compromised patients. It is often isolated in nosocomial infections cases, intensive care units, and can for instance cause nosocomial pneumonia, bacteraemia, and meningitis.  

Acinetobacter Epidemiologic Issues 

Especially, Acinetobacter baumannii is becoming a major hospital-acquired infection issue because of its often multi-drug resistance (MDR : resistance to C3G, quinolones, carbapenem etc). This contributes to the increase of morbidity and mortality. Active surveillance is necessary to control its spread in the facilities, to reduce the risk of cross-contamination, and to identify the carriers. Rapid identification of patients that are colonized with Acinetobacter would lead to infection control practices aimed at preventing spread of the organisms.

Medium Performance 

1. One unique colour - Red : Detection of A. baumanii from traditional culture media might be a difficult and tedious task due to the abundance of background flora found in collected specimens, especially when using media based on differentiation by the lactose/non-lactose fermentation ability. To overcome these difficulties, Colorex Acinetobacter was designed as a highly selective medium, allowing the growth of Acinetobacter in conspiciously red colonies, after overnight incubation.

2. FIRST chromogenic medium for Acinetobacter detection

3. Screening of MDR Acinetobacter: This medium can be supplemented to enhance MDR specificity allowing the growth of carbapenem-resistant strains.