Acinetobacter baumannii es uno de los patóge-nos oportunistas causantes de infecciones asociadas con la atención en salud (IAAS). Se lo puede encontrar contami-nando las unidades de cuidados intensivos (UCI) y causan-do enfermedades potencialmente mortales como septicemia, meningitis y neumonía. A. baumannii multidrogo resistente (MDR) posee gran capacidad para obtener elementos genéticos móviles, que diseminan la resistencia a los antibióticos.

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii is the top-ranked pathogen in the World Health Organization priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It emerged as a global pathogen due to the successful expansion of a few epidemic lineages, or international clones (ICs), producing acquired class D carbapenemases (OXA-type). During the past decade, however, reports regarding IC-I isolates in Latin America are scarce and are non-existent for IC-II and IC-III isolates. This study evaluates the molecular mechanisms of carbapenem resistance and the epidemiology of 80 non-duplicate clinical samples of A. baumannii collected from February 2014 through April 2016 at two tertiary care hospitals in Lima. Almost all isolates were carbapenem-resistant (97.5%), and susceptibility only remained high for colistin (95%). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed two main clusters spread between both h...