No abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a Gram-negative bacterium that exists naturally in the human body's gastrointestinal tract as part of the natural microflora. It has long been recognized as one of the most frequent nosocomial diseases and a multidrug resistant pathogen. The purpose of the current work was to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility and genetic relatedness of K. pneumoniae strains obtained from Ramadi hospitals, western Iraq, using the ERIC–PCR approach. In the period between June and September 2021, 51 K. pneumonia isolates were obtained from Anbar hospitals. After normal laboratory procedures and differential assays identified K. pneumoniae isolates, disk diffusion susceptibility testing was performed. Also, ERIC-PCR was used to determine genetic relatedness of 15 MDR K. pneumoniae isolates. Kirby –bauer disk diffusion test showed that among K. pneumonia isolates, the highest antibiotic resistance was to Augmentin (96%), cefotaxime (92%), ceftriaxone =Ceftazidime (88%), Amikacin (48%), Levofloxaccin (42%), and imipenem (26%). More than 66.66% of the isolates revealed multi-drug resistant phenotypes. ERIC-PCR results and data analysis indicate that there are 23 distinct ERIC types. The findings of this study show an increase in the prevalence of multiresistant K. pneumoniae in the hospitals studied. The ERIC PCR results revealed a high level of genetic diversity across K. pneumoniae strains, showing that K. pneumoniae isolates are polyclonal in Anbar hospitals.