Characterization of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates in Belgium

• Published in: European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 859 - 865
• Main Authors: Anantharajah, Ahalieyah, Deltombe, Matthieu, de Barsy, Marie, Evrard, Stephanie, Denis, Olivier, Bogaerts, Pierre, Hallin, Marie, Miendje Deyi, Véronique Yvette, Pierard, Denis, Bruynseels, Peggy, Boelens, Jerina, Glupczynski, Youri, Huang, Te-Din
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-05-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abscesses; Antibiotics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brief Report; Drug resistance; Genomes; Infections; Infectious diseases; Internal Medicine; Klebsiella; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Liver; Medical Microbiology; Metastasis; Microbiology; Patients; Plasmids; Sepsis; Virulence; Belgium; Hypermucoviscosity; Molecular epidemiology; Whole genome sequencing; Hypervirulence; Capsular serotype; Klebsiella pneumoniae
• ISSN: 0934-9723; 1435-4373
• DOI: 10.1007/s10096-022-04438-z

Hypervirulent
Klebsiella pneumoniae
(hvKp) raised concern worldwide. We studied 22 hvKp clinical invasive isolates referred to the Belgian national reference laboratory between 2014 and 2020. Sixty-four percent of the isolates expressed K2 capsular serotype and belonged to 7 different MLST lineages, while 32% expressed K1 (all belonging to ST23) and were associated with liver abscesses. Primary extra-hepatic infections were reported in 36% and sepsis for 95% of the patients with 30% of deaths. Improved clinical and microbiological diagnostics are required as hvKp may represent an underestimated cause of community-acquired invasive infections in Belgium.