Increasing frequency of Aminoglycoside-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae during the era of pandemic COVID-19

Omar B Ahmed; Atif H Asghar; Fayez S Bahwerth

doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.344

Increasing frequency of Aminoglycoside-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae during the era of pandemic COVID-19

Mater Today Proc. 2021 May 21. doi: 10.1016/j.matpr.2021.05.344. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Omar B Ahmed¹, Atif H Asghar¹, Fayez S Bahwerth²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental and Health Research, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.
² King Faisal Hospital Makkah, Ministry of Health, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The emergence of multidrug resistance to aminoglycosides in K. pneumoniae isolates is a growing concern, especially during pandemic Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study identifies antibiotic resistance in K. pneumoniae isolated from tertiary hospitals during pandemic COVID-19. Among 220 clinical isolates, the total rate of K. pneumoniae was found to be 89 (40.5%). Phenotyping results confirmed the resistance of aminoglycoside antibiotics in 51 (23.2%) of K. pneumoniae isolates. PCR results confirmed the existence of one or more aminoglycoside genes in 82.3% of the 51 isolates. The rmtD gene was the highest-detected gene (66.7%), followed by aac(6')-Ib (45.1%), aph(3')-Ia (45.1%), rmtB (29.4%), armA (21.6%), aac(3)-II (7.8%), and rmtA (3) (11.8%). Significantly, higher resistance strains showed a higher prevalence (61.5%) of aminoglycoside genes (p < 0.05). During COVID-19, there is a higher risk of acquiring MDR bacterial infections, so the monitoring of multidrug resistant bacteria must be continuously undertaken to implement effective measures in infection control and prevention.

Keywords: Aminoglycosides; COVID-19; K. pneumoniae; Resistant genes.