Author(s)

Ashika Singh-Moodley^1*, Pieter Ekermans², Olga Perovic^1.3

¹National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Division of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa.
²National Health Laboratory Service, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
³University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Introduction: Enterobacter cloacae strains have been isolated from Eastern Cape hospitalised patients. Methodology: We have molecularly characterised bla_OXA-48-, bla_IMP- and bla_VIM-expressing E. cloacae isolates demonstrating resistance to carbapenems from five hospitals by multilocus sequence typing. Organism identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using automated systems and the isolates were screened for carbapenemases using either conventional or real-time PCR and then typed using multilocus sequence typing. Further characterisation of IMP-type-producing E. cloacae isolates, an unusual occurrence in South Africa, was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Results and Conclusion: Twenty-five E. cloacae isolates from 24 patients were investigated. Eighteen (72%) isolates harboured either one of the following genes: bla_IMP, bla_VIM or bla_OXA-48. Multilocus sequence typing data and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that several strains from the same geographical region and hospitals were genetically related.

Enterobacter cloacae, Carbapenem-Producing, Multilocus Sequence Typing

Singh-Moodley, A. , Ekermans, P. and Perovic, O. (2015) Emerging Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacter cloacae Producing OXA-48-, VIM- and IMP-Type-β-Lactamases in Eastern Cape Hospitals in South Africa. Open Journal of Medical Microbiology, 5, 246-253. doi: 10.4236/ojmm.2015.54030.