Acinetobacter Genus: Pathogenic and Non pathogenic species.

The genus Acinetobacter are ubiquitous, gram-negative bacteria belonging to the wider class of Gammaproteobacteria. Acinetobacter species are oxidase negative, catalase-positive, non-fermentative, non-motile and strictly aerobic in nature. Few of the species under Acinetobacter contain twitching motility, also called as crawling bacterial motility. The genus Acinetobacter comprises38 species which include both pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. It contains clinically significant pathogenic species under the ABC complex (Acinetobacter baumannii and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus complex). The most important pathogenic species under this genus are A. baumannii, A. calcoaceticus and A. nosocomialis etc. The pathogenic species mainly infect immunocompromised patients and are rarely found in healthy individuals. They cause nosocomial infections, meningitis, pneumonia, bacteraemia and urinary tract infection. The mortality rate of the Acinetobacter infection found to be 26-55.7% annually. There are few non-pathogenic species present in the environment which have beneficial roles such as detoxification, removal of oil spillage, soil improvement etc. They are also part of the normal flora of skin in the human body. The current review paper provides information about the pathogenicity and various virulence factors of the bacterium, antimicrobial property, treatment used to treat Acinetobacter and other non-pathogenic species.