Researchers sampling the air inside an intensive care unit in China found carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, known as CRAB, in 13 of 88 air samples, and genetic sequencing linked some airborne bacteria to patients in the same or nearby rooms. The findings, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, suggest but do not prove that one of the hardest-to-treat hospital bacteria may travel through the air, not only on hands, surfaces, and shared equipment.
The finding matters because carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter is on CDC's list of urgent antibiotic-resistance threats. The agency's 2019 threat report fact sheet estimated 8,500 cases in hospitalized patients, 700 deaths, and $281 million in attributable health care costs in the United States in 2017. Some strains resist nearly all available antibiotics.
