Patients who live in nursing homes or long-term care facilities are likely to carry or be infected with drug-resistant superbugs, a Johns Hopkins study of adult patients showed.

Hopkins researchers studied a lesser-known hospital superbug, multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter, and ways to control its spread among vulnerable adult patients.

Nursing home patients were 12 times more likely to carry the bacterium. Rates were even higher, 22 times, among wheelchair- or bed-bound patients.

Most MDR-ACIN-colonized patients also carried high rates of three other, more common, superbugs. Sixty-two percent had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, 77 percent had vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and 39 percent had extended-spectrum beta-lactamase gram-negative bacteria.

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“Forewarned is forearmed, so by identifying this group of patients as more susceptible to carrying these bacteria, we are better prepared to thwart further spread through early detection, isolation and effective treatment,” study senior author and hospital epidemiologist Dr. Trish Perl said in a statement.

The researchers’ findings were presented Monday at the Society of Health Care Epidemiology meeting in Baltimore.