The Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (AGAR) performs regular period-prevalence studies to monitor changes in antimicrobial resistance in selected enteric Gram-negative pathogens. The 2015 survey was the third year to focus on blood stream infections, and included Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter species. Seven thousand three hundred and thirty species, comprising Enterobacteriaceae (6,567, 89.6%), P. aeruginosa (660, 9.0%) and Acinetobacter species (103, 1.4%), were tested using commercial automated methods (Vitek® 2, BioMérieux; Phoenix™, BD) and results were analysed using Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) breakpoints (January 2016). Of the key resistances, non-susceptibility to the third-generation cephalosporin, ceftriaxone, was found in 10.6%/10.6% of E. coli (CLSI/EUCAST criteria) and 5.9%/5.9% of Klebsiella pneumoniae, and 8.4%/8.4% K. oxytoca. Non-susceptibility rates to ciprofloxacin were 12.6%/13.6% for E. coli, 3.9%/7.2% for K. pneumoniae, 0.4%/0.4% for K. oxytoca, 3.4%/4.0% for Enterobacter cloacae, and 6.3%/6.5% for Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Resistance rates to piperacillin-tazobactam were 2.8%/6.3%, 3.5%/6.4%, 8.9%/10.2%, 15.9%/20.6%, and 7.1%/13.9% for the same four species respectively. Twenty-two isolates were shown to harbour a carbapenemase gene, 14 blaIMP, four blaOXA-48, one blaKPC, one blaGES, one blaNDM+OXA-48, and one blaIMP+VIM.
This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce the whole or part of this work in unaltered form for your own personal use or, if you are part of an organisation, for internal use within your organisation, but only if you or your organisation do not use the reproduction for any commercial purpose and retain this copyright notice and all disclaimer notices as part of that reproduction. Apart from rights to use as permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 or allowed by this copyright notice, all other rights are reserved and you are not allowed to reproduce the whole or any part of this work in any way (electronic or otherwise) without first being given the specific written permission from the Commonwealth to do so. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights are to be sent to the Online, Services and External Relations Branch, Department of Health, GPO Box 9848, Canberra ACT 2601, or by email to copyright@health.gov.au.