Detection of Several Carbapenems Resistant and Virulence Genes in Classical and Hyper-virulent Strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolated from Hospitalized Neonates and Adults in Khartoum

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Objective </jats:bold><jats:italic>Klebsiella pneumoniae</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>K. pneumoniae</jats:italic>) involves both community-acquired and nosocomial infections. It is responsible for a wide variety of infections, including infections of the urinary tract, pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis, wound infection and purulent abscesses. We constructed this study to detect several carbapenems resistant and virulence genes in classical and hyper-virulent strains of <jats:italic>K. pneumoniae</jats:italic> isolated from hospitalized neonates and adults in Khartoum<jats:bold> </jats:bold>state.<jats:bold> </jats:bold> <jats:bold>Results </jats:bold>Seventy percent of the isolates were resistant to ceftazidime, 18(30%) to ciprofloxacin, 23(38.3%) to chloramphenicol, 24(40%) to gentamicin and 8% to imipenem, 35% were multidrug-resistant, and 7% extensively drug-resistant, all blood isolates (n=14) were resistant to ceftazidime. <jats:italic>entB</jats:italic> was the most predominant virulence gene (93.3%), followed by <jats:italic>mrkD</jats:italic> (78.3%), <jats:italic>kfu</jats:italic> (60%), <jats:italic>K2</jats:italic> (51.7%), <jats:italic>magA</jats:italic> (18.3%) and <jats:italic>rmpA</jats:italic> (5%). <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>OXA-48 </jats:sub>was the most predominant carbapenem-resistant gene (68.3%), followed by <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>NDM</jats:sub> (10%), <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>KPC</jats:italic></jats:sub> (8.3%), and <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>IMP </jats:sub>(3.3%). Eight hyper-virulent strains were positive for <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>OXA-48 </jats:sub>and two for <jats:italic>bla</jats:italic><jats:sub>NDM</jats:sub><jats:italic> </jats:italic>genes.</jats:p>