Rapid detection of intestinal carriage of Klebsiella pneumoniae producing KPC carbapenemase during an outbreak

Abstract

Two different approaches are described for rapid detection of intestinal carriage of Klebsiella pneumoniae producing KPC-type carbapenemase (KPC-KP), based on PCR amplification of DNA extracts from rectal swabs (K-PCR), and on direct plating of rectal swabs on to MacConkey agar with a meropenem disc and a meropenem plus 3-aminophenylboronic acid disc (direct KPC screening test, DKST). K-PCR and DKST were tested with a total of 101 samples from 65 patients, during an outbreak. Although less sensitive, DKST could detect high-level carriage, which appears to be common among infected and colonised patients, while being very cheap and easy to perform, and requiring only basic facilities.