K. pneumoniae: ¿The new “superbacteria”? Pathogenicity, epidemiology and resistance mechanisms

Abstract

The antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem of public health. Klebsiella pneumoniae has become one of the most important pathogens because it is a frequent cause of nosocomial and community acquired infections and it has pathogenicity mechanisms like capsules, adhesive properties mediated by specialized estructures (pillis) and siderophores that are capable of taking up iron, an essential factor in bacterial growth. The increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics has evolved with the use of these in patients treatments, being increasingly wide the spectrum that they include, happening from the resistance to ampicillin by the production of betalactamase SHV-1 to carbapenems resistance by diverse mechanisms, from the production of extendedspectrum betalactamases (ESBL) that are associated with hydrolysis of extended-spectrum cephalosporins and aztreonam.

Microbiology laboratory should follow international recommendations to detect and confirm the presence of this resistance mechanism in bacteria and the clinicians should make a suitable interpretation of the results to make the better choice of the antibiotic therapy.