Trends in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) collected from hospitals nationwide in Singapore over 3 years are presented. Hospital isolates with imipenem or meropenem minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of >1mg/L were sent to the National Public Health Laboratory for further investigation. A total of 400 CRE were submitted, 227 (56.8%) of which carried a carbapenemase gene. blaNDM was the most common (130/400; 32.5%), followed by blaOXA-48-like (blaOXA-48, -181, -232) (55/400; 13.8%). Interestingly, four isolates bearing dual carbapenemase genes were also detected. KPC- and OXA-48-like-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae were fingerprinted by DiversiLab® rep-PCR. Locally, KPC producers do not appear to have clonal dissemination. In contrast, OXA-48-like producers were found to have a greater degree of clustering than KPC producers.
Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Carbapenemase; Clonality; Plasmid.
Copyright © 2013 International Society for Chemotherapy of Infection and Cancer. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.