Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012:5:133-41.
doi: 10.2147/IDR.S26613. Epub 2012 Sep 24.

Overview of the epidemiology and the threat of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPC) resistance

Luke F Chen  1 , Deverick J Anderson, David L Paterson
Affiliations

Overview of the epidemiology and the threat of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPC) resistance

Luke F Chen et al. Infect Drug Resist. 2012.

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPCs) confer resistance to nearly all β-lactams. This broad-spectrum drug resistance mechanism has rapidly spread in the United States and is reportedly increasing elsewhere in the world. Thus, the emergence of KPC resistance is a major threat to global health. This article reviews the epidemiology and provides an overview of the dissemination of KPC-producing organisms.

Keywords: beta-lactam resistance; carbapenemase; drug resistance; epidemiology; treatment failure.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ambler RP, Coulson AF, Frère JM, et al. A standard numbering scheme for the class A beta-lactamases. Biochem J. 1991;276(Pt 1):269–270. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kitchel B, Rasheed JK, Patel JB, et al. Molecular epidemiology of KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in the United States: clonal expansion of multilocus sequence type 258. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2009;53(8):3365–3370. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Urban C, Meyer KS, Mariano N, et al. Identification of TEM-26 beta-lactamase responsible for a major outbreak of ceftazidime-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1994;38(2):392–395. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tibbetts R, Frye JG, Marschall J, Warren D, Dunne W. Detection of KPC-2 in a clinical isolate of proteus mirabilis and first reported description of carbapenemase resistance caused by a KPC beta-lactamase in P. mirabilis. J Clin Microbiol. 2008;46(9):3080–3083. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang R, Zhou HW, Cai JC, Chen GX. Plasmid-mediated carbapenem-hydrolysing beta-lactamase KPC-2 in carbapenem-resistant Serratia marcescens isolates from Hangzhou, China. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2007;59(3):574–576. - PubMed