Find in Library

Hospitalized patients are likely to have chronic illnesses and are at an increased risk of mortality due to infection caused by MDR bacteria. We aimed to identify carbapenem-resistant genes carrying <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> (<i>K. pneumoniae</i>) isolates and their risk factors recovered from adult patients with comorbidities. A cross-sectional study was carried out between April 2021 and December 2021 at King Abdullah Hospital (KAH) in Bisha province, Saudi Arabia. Seventy-one multi-drug resistant <i>K. pneumoniae</i> recovered from clinical samples and screened for carbapenemase genes of <i>bla</i>OXA-48-like, <i>bla</i>NDM-1, <i>bla</i>KPC, <i>bla</i>VIM, and <i>bla</i>IMP. Of 71 MDR <i>K. pneumoniae</i> examined, 47 (66.2%) isolates harbored various carbapenemase genes. The most prevalent single resistance gene was <i>bla</i>OXA-48-like (62.5%; n = 25), and 33.3% of them were recovered from sputum isolates. The <i>bla</i>NDM-1 gene was detected in 12 (30.0%) isolates, and eight of them were recovered from urine (n = 4) and blood (n = 4). Two (5.0%) single <i>bla</i>KPC genes were recovered from the sputum (n = 1) and blood (n = 1) isolates. In contrast, no <i>bla</i>IMP- and <i>bla</i>VIM-carrying isolates were detected. The co-existence of two resistance genes between <i>bla</i>OXA-48-like and <i>bla</i>NDM-1 was found in six strains, whereas only one strain was found to be produced in the three genes of <i>bla</i>NDM-1, <i>bla</i>KPC, and <i>bla</i>OXA-48-like. There were statistically significant associations between the presence of carbapenem-gene-carrying <i>K. pneumoniae</i> and patients’ gender (χ2(1) = 5.94, <i>p</i> = 0.015), intensive care unit admission (χ2(1) = 7.649, <i>p</i> = 0.002), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (χ2(1) = 4.851, <i>p</i> = 0.028). The study highlighted the existence of carbapenemase-producing <i>K. pneumoniae</i>, particularly <i>bla</i>OXA-48-like and <i>bla</i>NDM-1, in patients with comorbidities. Our findings emphasize the importance of the molecular characterization of resistance-determinant-carrying bacterial pathogens as a part of infection control and prevention in hospital settings.