Clonal dissemination of Klebsiella pneumoniae ST258 harbouring KPC-2 in Argentina

GÓMEZ, SA; PASTERAN, FERNANDO; FACCONE, DIEGO; NATHALIE TIJET; RAPOPORT, MELINA; CELESTE LUCERO; LASTOVETSKA OLGA; EZEQUIEL ALBORNOZ; GALAS, MARCELO; KPC-GROUP; ROBERTO MELANO; ALEJANDRA CORSO; ALEJANDRO PETRONI

CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTION

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2011 vol. 17 p. 1520 - 1524

1198-743X

The present work describes the abrupt emergence of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) and characterizes the first 79 KPC-producing enterobacteria from Argentina (isolated from 2006 to 2010). The emergence of bla(KPC-2) was characterized by two patterns of dispersion: the first was the sporadic occurrence in diverse enterobacteria from distant geographical regions, harbouring plasmids of different incompatibility groups and bla(KPC-2) in an unusual genetic environment flanked by ISKpn8-Δbla(TEM-1) and ISKpn6-like. bla(KPC-2) was associated with IncL/M transferable plasmids; the second was the abrupt clonal spread of K. pneumoniae ST258 harbouring bla(KPC-2) in Tn4401a.