LAUSR

Hospitalized patients are likely to have chronic illnesses and are at an increased risk of mortality due to infection caused by MDR bacteria. We aimed to identify carbapenem-resistant genes carrying Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) isolates and their risk factors recovered from adult patients with comorbidities. A cross-sectional study was carried out between April 2021 and December 2021 at King Abdullah Hospital (KAH) in Bisha province, Saudi Arabia. Seventy-one multi-drug resistant K. pneumoniae recovered from clinical samples and screened for carbapenemase genes of blaOXA-48-like, blaNDM-1, blaKPC, blaVIM, and blaIMP. Of 71 MDR K. pneumoniae examined, 47 (66.2%) isolates harbored various carbapenemase genes. The most prevalent single resistance gene was blaOXA-48-like (62.5%; n = 25), and 33.3% of them were recovered from sputum isolates. The blaNDM-1 gene was detected in 12 (30.0%) isolates, and eight of them were recovered from urine (n = 4) and blood (n = 4). Two (5.0%) single blaKPC genes were recovered from the sputum (n = 1) and blood (n = 1) isolates. In contrast, no blaIMP- and blaVIM-carrying isolates were detected. The co-existence of two resistance genes between blaOXA-48-like and blaNDM-1 was found in six strains, whereas only one strain was found to be produced in the three genes of blaNDM-1, blaKPC, and blaOXA-48-like. There were statistically significant associations between the presence of carbapenem-gene-carrying K. pneumoniae and patients’ gender (χ2(1) = 5.94, p = 0.015), intensive care unit admission (χ2(1) = 7.649, p = 0.002), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (χ2(1) = 4.851, p = 0.028). The study highlighted the existence of carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae, particularly blaOXA-48-like and blaNDM-1, in patients with comorbidities. Our findings emphasize the importance of the molecular characterization of resistance-determinant-carrying bacterial pathogens as a part of infection control and prevention in hospital settings.