The Face of Hypervirulent Klebsiella Pneumoniae (hvKp) Isolated from Clinical samples of Two Iranian Teaching Hospitals

Abstract

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) has emerged as a pathogen of global concern. In this study, both phenotypic and genotypic tests were used to detect hvKp. Antimicrobial resistance profiles and clonal relatedness of clinical isolates were also determined. We found that 62.6% of the isolates were tellurite resistant and among them iucA or iutA or peg344 as hvKp molecular markers, were positive. The blaSHV (81.4%), followed by blaCTX−M15 (75.5%) and blaTEM (67.6%), blaOXA−48 (33.7%), blaNDM−1 (32.3%) were detected, while blaKPC−1 was not present in any hvKp isolates. It was found that the majority of hvKp isolates belonged to capsular serotype K20 and ompK36 group C, which is related to CG23 (e.g. ST23). A high percentage of multidrug-resistant hvKp (MDR-hvKp) and high resistance to imipenem (66%) indicated that there is an urgent problem that should be addressed in the clinical settings.