Distributions of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in Korea, 2018

Go Eunbyeul, Ju Seong-je, Park Sungdo, Yoo Jaeil, Hwang Kyu Jam
Division of Bacterial Diseases, Center for Laboratory Control of Infectious Diseases, KCDC

A gradual rising in carbapenem resistant trends among Enterobacteriaceae constitute a great concern to public health. We aimed to investigate the species, resistance rate and carbapenemase genes of CRE in 2018. A total of 8,618 CRE isolates from KCDC and RIPHE (Research Institute of Public Health and the Environment) were analyzed. Most of the CRE strains were K. pneumoniae (65.2%) and E. coli (17.2%). The resistant rate for each carbapenems was ertapenem (99.2%), meropenem (68.7%), imipenem (68.1%) and doripenem (55.8%), in order. Among these isolates, 68.8% of CRE strains harbored carbapenemase genes. The predominant Cabapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) strain types were KPC-2 (72.8%), NDM-1 (12.5%) and NDM-1/OXA-181 (4.1%). This study demonstrates prevalent species of CRE and CPE genotypes in Korea. It is important to continuous monitoring the changes for CRE and CPE distributions in Korea.
It is meaningful in providing nationwide data for outbreak and prevalent type studies of CRE.

Keywords: Cabapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae , Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae , Klebsiella pneumoniae, KPC-2