The importance of capsule types and virulence factors in molecular surveillance of carbapenem resistant klebsiella pneumoniae strains isolated from community and hospital-based systemic infections

K. pneumoniae strains becoming more of an issue have recently become public health threat all over K. pneumoniae strains have become an increasingly important public health threat around the world due to the frequent use of irrational antibiotics. Carbapenems isolated from nosocomial infections and strains resistant to broad spectrum β- lactam group antibiotics are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality. K. pneumoniae infections cause prolonged hospital stay of patients, necessity to use more effective and broad spectrum reserve drugs, increase in treatment costs and rapid resistance of active strains to broad spectrum agents. The rapid spread of carbepenem resistance genes carried by plasmids in K. pneumoniae strains isolated from common hospital infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infections, surgical site infections and bacteremia rapidly increases the size of the threat posed by these strains. In epidemiological studies, it has been suggested that there may be a relationship between resistance to antimicrobials, especially carbapenem group antibiotics, and capsule serotypes. The clonal determination of possible relationships between carbepenem resistant strains easily gaining resistance against broad spectrum antibiotics and other virulence factors affecting prognosis such as capsule structure is important in terms of both directing the treatment correctly and preventing the spread. In our study, the possible clonal relationships of the strains were examined using VNTR method by looking into which of the specific virulence factors characterised in K. pneumoniae strains isolated from systemic infections and determined to be carbapenem resistant are existing and then determining their capsule serotypes. Our study was carried out with the aim of creating epidemiological data according to the clinical correlations of the similarities of these strains with their virulence factors and capsule serotypes in terms of clonal relationship and helping to make faster decisions in the treatment of similar infections and to use antibiotics more rationally. Key words: Capsule Type, Carbapenem, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Nosocomial infections, Virulence Factor