Use of active surveillance cultures to detect asymptomatic colonization with carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae in intensive care unit patients

Abstract

Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae is emerging as a significant healthcare-associated pathogen. Clinical cultures detect only a fraction of the colonized population, and patients with asymptomatic colonization are at risk of invasive infection. Additional study of the impact of detection of asymptomatic colonization on subsequent infection and transmission is needed.