Outbreak of NDM-1-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic: Another nightmare

Abstract

An outbreak of Klebsiella pneumoniae producing the carbapenemase NDM-1 occurred in our ICU during the last COVID-19 wave. Twelve patients were tested positive, seven remained asymptomatic whereas 5 developed an infection. Resistome and in silico multilocus sequence typing confirmed the clonal origin of the strains. The identification of a possible environmental reservoir suggested that difficulties in observing optimal bio-cleaning procedures due to workload and exhaustion contributed to the outbreak besides the inappropriate excessive glove use.

Keywords: COVID-19; Carbapenemase; Enterobacterales; Hospital infection control; ICU; Transmission.