Clinical and genomic characterization of Klebsiella pneumoniae infections in Dhaka, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn), a WHO priority pathogen with high rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), has emerged as a leading cause of hospital acquired pneumonia and neonatal sepsis. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to define the clinical characteristics of a cohort of patients with Kpn infection in Dhaka, Bangladesh and to perform phenotypic and genetic characterization of the associated isolates. METHODS: We retrospectively extracted clinical data about patients at Dhaka Medical College Hospital from whom Klebsiella spp was isolated from a clinical specimen collected between February and September 2022. We used standard microbiologic techniques to evaluate AMR and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to assess dominant lineages, common capsular (K) and O-polysaccharide (O) antigen types, and AMR and virulence genes. RESULTS: Ninety-eight patients were…