Prevalence and Antibiotic susceptibility pattern among Klebsiella isolates from patients attending a tertiary care hospital

• Author Details:   
• Sharanya K
• Sindhu Cugati
• Chitralekha Saikumar

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Introduction: Klebsiella is an important opportunistic pathogen that is found to be the causative of hospital acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infections, skin and soft tissue infections and bacteremia. It has developed resistance to most of the currently used antibiotics and even resistance to higher antibiotics like carbapenems is on the rise. Hospital acquired infections caused by multidrug resistant strains of Klebsiella species are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality.
Aim: To assess the diversity and state of resistance of K. pneumoniae to antibiotics in a tertiary care centre.

Materials and Methods: Klebsiella strains were isolated from clinical samples received in microbiology laboratory in a tertiary care centre and were identified by standard biochemical techniques. 368 Klebsiella strains were included in the study. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method following CLSI guidelines. Quality control was performed by using standard strain E. coli ATCC 25922.
Results: 13.16% of strains isolated from clinical samples were found to be Klebsiella species. Out of 368 Klebsiella strains 42% were resistant to Ceftriaxone, 46% to Cotrimoxazole, 52% to Amoxycillin-clavulanicacid. Resistance to Meropenem & Piperacillin-Tazobactum was 10% & 12% respectively.
Conclusion: Detection of drug resistance mechanisms, formulation of a good antibiotic policy and a proper antibiotic stewardship program should be incorporated to combat emerging multidrug resistance which is a global threat.

Keywords:Multidrug resistance, Klebsiella, Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method