Infections caused by OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in a tertiary hospital in Spain in the setting of a prolonged, hospital-wide outbreak

We describe clinical and microbiological features of infections caused by OXA-48-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (O48KP) in the setting of a prolonged, hospital-wide outbreak detected in January 2011. Clinical, demographic and microbiological data of patients with growth of O48KP in clinical specimens were collected until December 2011. PCR was used to detect carbapenemase and -lactamase genes. The genetic relationships were determined by automated repetitive-sequence-based PCR. Seventy-one patients with clinically guided cultures showing growth of O48KP were identified. Nine were considered to be colonizing rather than causing infection. The most frequent source of infection was the urinary tract (22/62), followed by surgical site infections (17/62). Blood cultures were positive in 23/62 patients. Many patients had significant comorbidity and prolonged hospital stays. In-hospital mortality among patients with O48KP infections was 43.5. The MIC(90)s of ertapenem, imipenem and meropenem were 32, 16 and 16 mg/L, respectively. No single antimicrobial was active against all the isolates. The antibiotics most active against O48KP were amikacin (97.2 susceptible), colistin (90.1), tigecycline (73) and fosfomycin (66.2). Although eight clones were identified, a predominant clone caused 73.2 of the infections. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of the predominant clone gave sequence type (ST) 405 and bla(TEM-1), bla(SHV-76), bla(CTX-M-15) and bla(OXA-1) genes and the insertion sequence IS1999 of the Tn1999 transposon were associated with bla(OXA-48) in this clone. To our knowledge, this is the largest reported series of infections caused by O48KP in the setting of a single-centre outbreak and provides further input on the clinical relevance of infections caused by O48KP and the difficulties associated with its detection and control.