Molecular Epidemiology of Carbapenem Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae in Northern China: Clinical Characteristics, Antimicrobial Resistance, Virulence and Geographic Distribution

PURPOSE: In this article, we studied in detail 74 Carbapenem Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) in Shanxi to provide essential insight into development of effective strategies for control of CRKP. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From 2018 to 2021, we collected 74 clinical CRKP from 11 hospitals in Shanxi Province. Clinical data were obtained from medical records, and all isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, multi locus sequence typing, capsular serotypes, resistant gene profiles and virulence gene profiles. The synergistic activity was performed by microdilution checkerboard method. RESULTS: Our study found differences in the clinical characteristics of CRKP between regions in Shanxi. Sequence type (ST) 11 was the dominant ST in Shanxi; however, the ST types in Shanxi had become more diverse over time and the proportion of STs showed a more balanced distribution with a significant decrease in ST11. NDM was the most common carbapenemase in Shanxi. In addition, the STs, carbapenemases, serotypes and virulence gene distribution varied by region in Shanxi. Moreover, tigecycline in combination with carbapenems and aztreonam had an excellent synergistic effect on CRKP in vitro. CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide essential insight into development of effective strategies for control of CRKP in Shanxi.