Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in South Korea: a report from the National Laboratory Surveillance System.

Aim: To assess the epidemiology of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) in South Korea.

Materials & Methods: From 2011 to 2015, 2487 carbapenem-nonsusceptible Enterobacteriaceae were collected through the Korean National Laboratory Surveillance System. Disk-diffusion for antimicrobial susceptibility, PCR/sequencing to detect carbapenemase genes and multilocus sequence typing for molecular epidemiology were carried out.

Results: The number of carbapenem-nonsusceptible Enterobacteriaceae was increasing approximately 1.5-fold per year and the proportion of CPEs was exponentially confirmed from 2014. KPC was the most dominant, mostly associated with Klebsiella pneumoniae ST11 and ST307, NDM was the second and OXA-48-like was the third dominant carbapenemases. The IMP, VIM and GES-5 CPEs were identified sporadically.

Conclusion: The nation-wide spreads of KPC, NDM and OXA-48-like CPEs were in an alarming epidemiological stage.