Genotypic And Phenotypic Surveillance Of Multidrug Resistance Of Hypermucoid K. Pneumoniae Among Clinical Isolates In AL Najaf City /Iraq

Abstract

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae strains  are the major cause of liver abscesses ,diabetes foot ulcers  and other  infections throughout Iraq, and these strains are usually antibiotics susceptible. Recently, hypervirulent K. pneumoniae isolates have emerged due to acquiring antimicrobial resistance determinants or the transfer of a virulence plasmid into a classic isolates  ,.Klebsiella pneumoniae is responsible for hospital- and community-acquired infections. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of  hyper irulence K. pneumoniae and investigate the antibiotics resistance profile among clinical specimens at Al Najaf Hospitals in/ Iraq, and detect the genes for molecular identification of K. pneumoniae in comparison with phenotypic and biochemical methods. In total, 100 clinical specimens were collected from patients infected with K. pneumoniae, between January 2023 and May 2023 from both sexes males (38) and Females (62) with age ranged between (20-70) years. The Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were cultured on general and selective media as (Blood agar and MacConkey agar and CHROM agar), and confirmed by  using Vitek-2 system. The isolates were reported with high resistance towards various types of antibiotics, especially penicillins and cephalosporins. In contrast, K. pneumoniae showed very low resistance to imipenem and amikacin. According to  the results the range of multidrug-resistant K. pneumoniae isolates in this study was estimated at 100%.