Background: Carbapenem antibiotics are currently the most broad-spectrum and active β - lactam antibiotics. Without solid intervention measures, Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) may become prevalent in all healthcare institutions within ten years and eventually develop into an endemic disease.
Objectives: Understand the epidemiological characteristics and Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) of Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections in hospitals and explore the critical points for preventing and controlling CRE hospital infections.
Methods: Selecting hospitalized patients with CRE strains isolated from the Laboratory Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 2020 to 2022 as the research subjects, collecting basic patient information, bacterial isolation and culture, and drug sensitivity results, and organizing and analyzing the epidemiological characteristics of CRE infection; Review and identify the preserved Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae (CRKP), and obtain the CRKP Sequence Type (ST) through MLST typing.
Results: A total of 187 strains of CRE bacteria were isolated in the hospital over the past three years, with CRE infections mainly occurring in males and individuals over 60. The departments with higher detection rates are ICU wards, geriatric departments, and rehabilitation departments, accounting for 35.29%, 11.23%, and 8.02%, respectively. The top three sources of specimens are sputum, clean midstream urine, and secretions, accounting for 43.85%, 32.09%, and 13.90%, respectively. The CRE bacteria isolated in the entire hospital are mainly CRKP, accounting for 80.21%, followed by carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, accounting for 14.44%. CRE bacteria have a high resistance rate to most commonly used antibiotics but are sensitive to tigecycline. The MLST results showed that among the 11 CRKP strains, 10 were ST11 type, 90.91%, and 1 was ST15 type, accounting for 9.09%.
Conclusions: From 2020 to 2022, the central CRE-infected patients in the hospital were elderly male patients over 60 years old; the bacteria were mainly CRKP, and ST11 was its primary sequence type; CRE bacteria were highly resistant to the most commonly used antimicrobial drugs in clinical practice. The hospital should strengthen the prevention and control of CRE infection, do an excellent job in antimicrobial drug management, patient identification and management, environmental and item management, and prevent hospital infection and outbreak caused by CRE.