[Resistance to beta-lactams among Acinetobacter spp isolated from hospital sewage in southern Brazil].

Acinetobacter spp is an important pathogen that is responsible for nosocomial infections affecting immunocompromised patients, and it can easily acquire resistance to antimicrobial agents. Hospital sewage is an important means for disseminating genes for resistance to antimicrobial agents, to the microbiota of the environment. Within this context, 30 strains of Acinetobacter spp from the sewage of a hospital in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, were analyzed regarding their profile of susceptibility to beta-lactams, quinolones and aminoglycosides, by means of an antibiogram and tests to screen for metallo-beta-lactamases and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases. The profile obtained revealed the presence of multidrug-resistant strains and showed that resistance mechanisms such as the production of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases and efflux pumps may be present in these strains.