Prolonged Outbreak of Carbapenem and Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae at a Large Tertiary Hospital in Brazil

Multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria, such as carbapenem and colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (ColR-CRKP), represent a major problem for health systems worldwide and have high lethality. This study investigated the genetic relationship, antimicrobial susceptibility profile, and resistance mechanisms to ColR-CRKP isolates from patients infected/colonized in a tertiary hospital in Salvador, Bahia/Brazil. From September 2016 to January 2018, 46 patients (56 ColR-CRKP positive cultures) were enrolled in the investigation but clinical and demographic data were obtained from 31 patients. Most of them were men (67.7%) and elderly (median age of 62 years old), and the median Charlson score was 3. The main comorbidities were systemic arterial hypertension (38.7%), diabetes (32.2%), and cerebrovascular disease (25.8%). The average hospitalization stay until ColR-CRKP identification in days were 35.12. A total of 90.6% used mechanical ventilation and 93.7% used a central venous catheter. Of the 31 patients who had the data evaluated, 12 had ColR-CRKP infection, and seven died (58.4%). Previous use of polymyxins was identified in 32.2% of the cases, and carbapenems were identified in 70.9%. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for colistin was > 16 μg/mL, with more than half of the isolates (55%) having a MIC of 256 μg/mL. The bla(KPC) gene was detected in 94.7% of the isolates, bla(NDM) in 16.0%, and bla(GES) in 1.7%. The bla(OXA–48), bla(VIM,) and bla(IMP) genes were not detected. The mcr-1 test was negative in all 56 isolates. Alteration of the mgrB gene was detected in 87.5% (n = 49/56) of the isolates, and of these, 49.0% (24/49) had alteration in size probably due to IS903B, 22.4% (11/49) did not have the mgrB gene detected, 20.4% (10/49) presented the IS903B, 6.1% (3/49) had a premature stop codon (Q30*), and 2.1% (1/49) presented a thymine deletion at position 104 – 104delT (F35fs). The PFGE profile showed a monoclonal profile in 84.7% of the isolates in different hospital sectors, with ST11 (CC-258) being the most frequent sequence type. This study presents a prolonged outbreak of ColR-CRKP in which 83.9% of the isolates belonged to the same cluster, and 67.6% of the patients evaluated had not used polymyxin, suggesting the possibility of cross-transmission of ColR-CRKP isolates.