Screening Klebsiella pneumoniae in community-acquired infections and its relationship to antibiotic profile resistance in Kirkuk City

Community-acquired Klebsiella pneumoniae is a major cause of health problems due to the rising rates of antibiotic resistance, especially for the new generation of antimicrobial families. The objective of this study was to detect the prevalence of K. pneumoniae from clinical samples of community-acquired infections and its association with antimicrobial resistance. A total of 256 different clinical samples were obtained from outpatients at four main hospitals in Kirkuk city. In addition, 38 isolates were identified by culture and biochemical characteristics and then confirmed with the VITEK 2 system. The antibiotic resistance profile was determined by testing 30 antibiotics using both the disc diffusion method and the VITEK 2 AST-419 card. Results: This study involved 256 clinical samples; K. pneumoniae represented 14.8% of all isolates. The antibiotic sensitivity test showed 100% resistance of all isolates to the penicillin group while most isolates were sensitive (89.5%, 84.2%) to lipopeptide and Glycylcycline groups respectively. The data showed increased resistance of K. pneumoniae to the common antibiotics and MDR K. pneumoniae was the most prevalent among the isolates.