The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a “global situation” alert Thursday over a hypervirulent strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection that appears resistant to antibiotics.
The K. pneumoniae strains were labeled as “hypervirulent” as they can cause severe infections in healthy and immunocompromised individuals “and have been identified with increasing frequency in recent years,” the WHO wrote in the alert statement. The strains also have an increased tendency to create “invasive infections.” The K. pneumoniae sequence type (ST) 23 strain in particular is reported to have resistance to last-line antibiotics like carbapenems.
The WHO is asking all member states to “progressively increase their laboratory diagnostic capacity to allow for the early and reliable identification” of the infection. The overall risk level is currently at “moderate” over challenges in surveillance, a lack of information about rates of lab and an overall gap in data on hospitalizations and other data dictating the current global burden of the disease.
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The Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Surveillance System on Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance Reporting (GLASS-EAR) issued a request to 124 countries in early 2024 to gather information on the spread of K. pneumoniae. Only 43 countries provided a response. Sixteen nations and territories reported a presence of the disease, including the U.S. and Canada. Twelve countries reported a presence of ST23-K1 strain in particular, including Canada. (RELATED: WHO H2N8 Avian Influenza Virus Kills First Human)
The bacteria is typically found in the environment and in mammalian mucous membranes, as it colonizes in the throat and gastrointestinal tract. It will typically cause hospitalization in immunocompromised individuals.
Over recent years, scientists have identified a growing rate of resistance of various strains of the bacteria to antibiotics. This, coupled with “no systematic surveillance” of the disease globally, increases the risk of spread.