Multidrug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from respiratory tract infection

An increasing antimicrobial resistance among Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) has been rapidly growing. The cross-sectional, analytical and descriptive study was conducted to investigate the multidrug resistance (MDR) of K. pneumoniae isolated from respiratory tract infection. One hundred and fifty-one K. pneumoniae isolates were recovered from 330 sputum specimens (45.75%). The isolates showed high levels of resistance to the most of antibiotics and intermediate resistance prevalence against imipenem and meropenem. Random and misuse of antibiotics lead to the emergence of superbugs. Prospective studies must focus on new strategies for facing of the tsunami of drug resistance.K. pneumoniae is a Gram-negative bacterium, belongs to family Enterobacteriaceae. K. pneumoniae can be stated as the major cause of different types of lower respiratory infections followed by septicemia. The majority of the infections were diagnosed in hospitalized patients, it indicates that K. pneumoniae is a potent nosocomial pathogen in our hospitals(Kramer et al., 2006).Treatment of infections caused by K. pneumoniae is hindered by emergence of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents. K. pneumoniae is capable of employing a multitude of mechanisms by which to confer resistance to most available antibiotics, efflux pumps play a major role. Bacterial efflux pumps are membrane proteins that decrease intracellular concentration of antimicrobial agents through pumping them outside the cells. Importantly, bacterial efflux pumps are non-specific in action and therefore could mediate bacterial resistance to structurally unrelated antimicrobial agents (Nahar and Rashid, 2017).