Screening for Carbapenemases in Ertapenem-Resistant Collected at a Tunisian Hospital Between 2014 and 2018.

Background: Carbapenem-resistance is frequently detected in isolated from patients in Tunisia. The study was performed to identify frequent carbapenemases in Tunisian isolates.

Methods: Between May 2014 and January 2018, 197 ertapenem-resistant were isolated at the microbiological department of the Military Hospital of Tunis. The strains were phenotypically characterized and then subjected to in-house polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the carbapenemase genes , and

Results: The assessed 197 ertapenem-resistant from Tunis comprised 170 , , 6 , , and 1 Thereby, 55 out of 197 isolates (27.9%) were from blood cultures, suggesting a systemic disease. The carbapenemase gene quantitatively dominated by far with 153 detections, followed by with 14 detections, which were distributed about the whole study interval. In contrast, and were only infrequently identified in 5 and 3 cases, respectively, while the other carbapenamases were not observed.

Conclusions: The carbapenemase gene was identified in the vast majority of ertapenem-resistant Tunisian while all other assessed carbapenemases were much less abundant. In a quantitatively relevant minority of isolates, the applied PCR-based screening approach did not identify any carbapenemases.