The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday issued a “global situation” alert about a hypervirulent strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection that appears to be resistant to antibiotics.
The WHO said in its warning that the K. pneumoniae strain is classified as “hypervirulent” because it can cause severe infections in healthy and immunocompromised people, “which have become more frequent in recent years.” statementThese strains also have an increased tendency to cause “invasive infections.” In particular, K. pneumoniae sequence type (ST) 23 strains have been reported to be resistant to last-line antibiotics, such as carbapenems.
The WHO has called on all member states to “progressively increase laboratory diagnostic capacities to enable early and reliable identification of infections.” The overall risk level is currently “medium” due to surveillance challenges, a lack of information on testing rates, and overall gaps in hospitalization data and other data showing the current global burden of disease.
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The Global Surveillance System for Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Resistance Reporting (GLASS-EAR) invited 124 countries to collect information on the prevalence of K. pneumoniae in early 2024, but only 43 countries responded. Sixteen countries and territories, including the United States and Canada, reported the presence of the disease. Twelve countries, including Canada, specifically reported the presence of the ST23-K1 strain. (Related: WHO H2N8 avian influenza virus causes first human deaths)
The bacterium is usually found in the environment or on mammalian mucous membranes, colonizing the throat and gastrointestinal tract. In immunocompromised people, hospitalization is often required.
In recent years, scientists have observed increasing rates of resistance among various strains of the bacteria to antibiotics, which, combined with the lack of systematic surveillance of the disease worldwide, increases the risk of the infection spreading.
