Identification and response to a putatively hypervirulent, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae ST395 hospital outbreak in the UK

Here, we describe a putatively hypervirulent, carbapenem-resistant <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> (hv-CRKP) outbreak. Nanopore sequencing guided the infection prevention and control (IPC) responses during the outbreak. Twelve patients were identified as either being colonized and/or having clinical infections with the putative hv-CRKP, with an all-cause mortality within 6 months of 36%. Multiple IPC responses were put in place, with enhanced cleaning of the environment being the key intervention to halt the outbreak. All isolates were ST395 and contained at least one <i>bla</i> _NDM carbapenemase gene, along with a variable array of other antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, due to a rapidly evolving set of plasmids.