Three
different species of Klebsiella bacteria
can cause life-threatening infections in hospital patients and that all three
share genes that confer resistance to the most commonly used antibiotics, new
research shows. The study improves physicians' understanding of Klebsiella infections and could point
toward better ways to fight multi-drug resistant strains of these bacteria.
The
researchers sequenced the entire genome of 1,777 Klebsiella from clinical specimens across the greater Houston area.
Until now, Klebsiella pneumoniae was
thought to be the culprit in most serious Klebsiella
infections. However, the research team noticed a group of 28 samples that
looked genetically different.
Depending
on the collection, between 2-12 percent of the samples had been misidentified
as Klebsiella pneumoniae, and were in fact two related species, Klebsiella variicola or Klebsiella
quasipneumoniae. K. variicola and K.
quasipneumoniae had previously been characterized as commensal,
nonpathogenic bacteria of the GI tract or agricultural pests, which rarely
caused human infections. Long's team found they were capable of causing
invasive and severe infections in patients, with the same rate of mortality as K. pneumoniae.
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Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle