New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase in Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, Canada

DOI: 10.3201/eid1701.101358

Suggested citation for this article: Mulvey MR, Grant JM, Plewes K, Roscoe D, Boyd DA. New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase in Klebsiella pnemoniae and Escherichia coli, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Jan; [Epub ahead of print]

New Delhi Metallo-β-Lactamase in Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, Canada
Michael R. Mulvey, Jennifer M. Grant, Katherine Plewes, Diane Roscoe, and David A. Boyd

Author affiliations: Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (M.R. Mulvey, D.A. Boyd); and Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (J.M. Grant, K. Plewes, D. Roscoe)

Multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli isolates harboring New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM-1) were isolated from a patient who had returned to Canada from India. The NDM-1 gene was found on closely related incomplete A/C type plasmids. The occurrence of NDM-1 in North America is a major public health concern.

Carbapenem-hydrolyzing β-lactamases, i.e., carbapenemases, in bacterial clinical isolates are an increasing concern because they often also confer resistance to most other β-lactam antimicrobial agents. Among Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenemases are mainly found in the Ambler class A penicillinase or class B metallo-enzyme groups. VIM and IMP are the most frequently acquired class B enzymes and are commonly found in southern Europe and the Far East, rarely in North America. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) class A has been found worldwide, although it emerged in the eastern United States in the mid 1990s and subsequently has successfully established itself in multiple states (1).

Recently, a new class B enzyme, New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM-1), was characterized from a K. pneumoniae isolate from Sweden; the bacteria seem to have been imported from India (2). Enterobacteriaceae isolates harboring NDM-1 have now been found in multiple areas of India and Pakistan and in the United Kingdom (3–5); such isolates were...

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