First identified case of VIM-producing carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in the Republic of Ireland associated with fatal outcome.

In September 2010 a woman in her mid-fifties, was transferred from a Greek hospital to the intensive care unit of our institution, with severe herpes simplex encephalitis. She was empirically treated with vancomycin and meropenem for nosocomial pneumonia. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter cloacae cultured from respiratory specimens were susceptible to meropenem. However, K. pneumoniae resistant to meropenem was identified from a swab collected from a deep sacral pressure sore. The patient was immediately isolated. Treatment with tigecycline and intravenous colistin was added, but the patient died within seven days of her transfer. No isolates of CRE were detected in samples collected from patient’s contacts.