Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: To the Editor: Rural counties have been defined as those lacking a metropolitan center that has a population >50,000 persons (1).Little is known about antimicrobial drug resistance in such communities in the United States.Stevenson and colleagues (2) recently evaluated antimicrobial drug-resistant gram-positive infections in rural hospitals in Idaho and Utah.These researchers found that both methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci occurred in such settings, although some of the MRSA strains were probably community associated.Comparable studies on multidrugresistant gram-negative infections have not been performed, to our knowledge.Klebsiella pneumoniae producing a broad-spectrum β-lactamase, KPC, has been described in tertiary care centers and other metropolitan hospitals in New York City.Examples have also been found in similar settings in Boston, New Jersey, Maryland,.The carbapenems (such as imipenem and meropenem) are typically the most active antimicrobial agents against the Enterobacteriaceae.The KPC β-lactamases inactivate carbapenems and all other β-lactam antimicrobial drugs.Unfortunately, bacteria producing the KPC type β-lactamases are typically also resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, quinolones, and aminoglycosides, thereby making these pathogens truly multidrug resistant.We describe a patient with KPCproducing K. pneumoniae in a rural setting in central-west Pennsylvania.
Source: Emerging infectious diseases
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Medicine
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2014776297