Prevalence and characteristics of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in three tertiary-care Korean university hospitals between 2017 and 2018.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) from three tertiary-care Korean university hospitals between 2017 and 2018. Non-duplicated clinical isolates of Enterobacteriaceae revealing resistance to any carbapenem agents were collected prospectively from three tertiary university hospitals between 2017 and 2018. The presence of carbapenemase genes was detected by multiplex PCR and sequencing for blaKPC, blaVIM, blaNDM, blaIMP, blaOXA, and blaGES. Among the 690 carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) isolates, 66.8% (N=461) were CPE. The species distribution of CPE was as follows: K. pneumoniae was most common (75.9%), followed by E. coli (15.0%), C. freundii (4.6%), E. cloacae (2.6%), K. aerogenes (0.7%), and K. oxytoca (0.4%). All 11 CPE genes were detected, particularly KPC-2 (87.6%), NDM-1 (7.4%), NDM-5 (1.7%), KPC-3 (1.3%), OXA-232 (1.1%), and OXA-181 (1.1%). Six isolates produced two or three carbapenemases. Most of the carbapenemase-producing C. freundii were positive for NDM-1. We confirmed a high proportion of CPE among CRE with a high prevalence of KCP-2-producing K. pneumoniae and E. coli. We need to institute continuous surveillance to monitor the prevalence of CPE.