Klebsiella pneumoniae KP3 was isolated from a patient transferred from India to the Sultanate of Oman. K. pneumoniae KP3 was resistant to all ␤-lactams, including carbapenems, and expressed the carbapenemhydrolyzing ␤-lactamase OXA-181, which differs from OXA-48 by four amino acid substitutions. Compared to OXA-48, OXA-181 possessed a very similar hydrolytic profile. The bla OXA-181 gene was located on a 7.6-kb ColE-type plasmid and was linked to the insertion sequence ISEcp1. The ISEcp1-mediated one-ended transposition of bla OXA-181 was also demonstrated.

Highlights 4.3% of our hospital HCWs were infected with COVID 19 during the study period. There was no significant difference between hospital and community acquisition of the infection with age, nationality, or presence of co-morbidities. There was a significant difference between hospital and community-acquired concerning HCWs categories, gender and being at risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the hospital. 78% of the infected HCWs had no chronic diseases and all had an uneventful recovery.

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The Gulf Cooperation Council Center for Infection Control (GCC-IC) has placed the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the top of its agenda for the past four years. The board members have developed the initial draft for the GCC strategic plan for combating AMR in 2014. The strategic plan stems from the WHO mandate to combat AMR at all levels. The need for engaging a large number of stakeholders has prompted the GCC-IC to engage a wider core of professionals in finalizing the plan. A multi-disciplinary group of more than 40 experts were then identified. And a workshop was conducted in Riyadh January 2015 and included, for the first time, representation of relevant ministries and agencies as well as international experts in the field. Participants worked over a period of two and a half days in different groups. International experts shared the global experiences and challenges in addressing human, food, animal, and environmental aspects of controlling AMR. Participants were then divided into 4 groups each to address the human, animal, microbiological and diagnostic, or the environmental aspect of AMR. At the end of the workshop, the strategic plan was revised and endorsed by all participants. The GCC-IC board members then approved it as the strategic plan for AMR. The document produced here is the first GCC strategic plan addressing AMR, which shall be adopted by GCC countries to develop country-based plans and related key performance indicators (KPIs). It is now the role of each country to identify the body that will be accountable for implementing the plan at the country level.

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