Molecular Epidemiology of Multi-Drug Resistant Isolates from Hospitalized Patients in Greece.

Resistant isolates are one of the major causes of both hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and community-acquired infections (CAIs). However, management of infections is difficult as the bacterium is inherently resistant to many antibiotics. In this study, a collection of 75 clinical isolates from two tertiary hospitals from Athens and Alexnadroupolis in Greece was studied to assess antimicrobial sensitivity and molecular epidemiology. All isolates were tested for susceptibility to 11 commonly used antibiotics, and the newly introduced Double Locus Sequence Typing (DLST) scheme was implemented to elucidate the predominant clones. The tested isolates presented various resistant phenotypes, with Verona Integron-Mediated Metallo-β-lactamase (VIM-2) mechanisms being the majority, and a new phenotype, FEP-CAZ being reported for the first time in Greek isolates. DLST revealed two predominant types, 32-39 and 8-37, and provided evidence for intra-hospital transmission of the 32-39 clone in one of the hospitals. The results indicate that DLST can be a valuable tool when local outbreaks demand immediate tracking investigation with limited time and financial resources.