Screening and Characterization of Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria from a Remote African Area, São Tomé and Príncipe

: The occurrence of resistance to last-resort antibiotics was evaluated among Enterobacteriaceae isolates recovered from hospitalized children in a remote African archipelago, Sao Tome and Principe, where there is limited access to those antibiotics. Fifty patients were screened for colonization by carbapenem-, pan-aminoglycoside-, or polymyxin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae A total of 36 isolates (including 30 Escherichia coli and 4 Klebsiella pneumoniae) were recovered from 23 patients, including 26 isolates harboring the blaOXA-181 carbapenemase gene, a single isolate harboring the 16S rRNA methylase gene rmtB encoding pan-resistance to aminoglycosides, and 8 isolates coharboring both genes. A single isolate possessed the plasmid-borne colistin resistance gene mcr-1 A high clonal relationship was found for OXA-181-producing E. coli (4 clones), and conversely, three of the four OXA-181-producing K. pneumoniae isolates were clonally unrelated. This study overall showed a high prevalence of resistance to last-resort antibiotics in this country, where no epidemiological data were previously available.