Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and molecular support of carbapenem resistance in gram-negative bacilli clinical isolates collected between March 2013 and March 2015 in three cities (Annaba, Skikda, and Guelma) in northeastern Algeria.
Results: One hundred eighty-six isolates were identified as Enterobacteriaceae (161), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (18), and Acinetobacter baumannii (7). Thirty-six of 186 (19.3%) were resistant to carbapenems. Among them, 11 harbored carbapenemase genes, including blaOXA-48 (2 Klebsiella pneumoniae), blaVIM-4 (2 P. aeruginosa), blaNDM-1 (2 A. baumannii), and blaOXA-23 (5 A. baumannii). In addition, other β-lactamases were detected: blaCTX-M-(15/66/139), blaSHV-(28/85/1/133), and blaTEM-1. All imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa displayed OprD mutations. Multilocus sequence typing demonstrated the presence of ST 404 and ST 219 in K. pneumoniae, ST 2 and ST 85 in A. baumannii, and ST (244, 1076, 241, 227, and 233) in P. aeruginosa.
Conclusion: In this study, we report the first detection of P. aeruginosa ST 1076 harboring the blaVIM-4 gene in African countries in two cities (Annaba and Skikda) in northeastern Algeria. Additionally, we report the first detection of blaOXA-48 in K. pneumoniae ST 404 and ST 219 in Algerian cities (Annaba and Skikda).
Keywords: Algeria; OXA-48; VIM-4; carbapenemase; gram-negative bacilli.