The Directorate-General of Health today called on hospitals to strengthen infection prevention and control measures and screen patients upon admission as cases of multi-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria increase in Europe.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned on Wednesday that the number of reported cases of the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae ST23 (hvKp) is rising in Europe, with the number of reported cases rising from 12 to 143 since 2021.
In a written response sent to the Lusa agency today, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) said that at the time of the ECDC warning, no cases of the disease had been reported in Portugal.
However, it recommended that “due to the emergence of these resistances worldwide,” all “prevention and control measures, as well as diagnostic and laboratory monitoring tools,” should be strengthened.
“Healthcare managers must consistently and firmly promote all measures described in the SRS Standards, namely: hand hygiene, basic infection control precautions (with special emphasis on disinfecting surfaces and equipment), and transmission precautions. routes (contact, fecal-oral),” the DHS said in a statement.
He also advised screening upon patient admission and during hospitalization, separating suspected or confirmed patients into separate wards.
“Special attention must also be paid to the most vulnerable patients, especially when transferring inpatient care to Integrated Continuing Care Network units,” emphasizes the DGS.
The health authority notes an increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant strains of Enterobacteriaceae in Portugal and highlights that the global resistance rate of Klebsiella pneumoniae has increased from 2% to 11.6% between 2012 and 2020.
Like all Member States, Portugal adopts the European Center for Disease Control Guidelines, in line with European and Council guidelines, with the aim of consolidating the surveillance network for healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial consumption and antimicrobial resistance.
In this context, as reported by the DGS, “resistance profiles in invasive samples are monitored and reported on an annual basis, as verified by the Instituto Nacional Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA).”
The ECDC expressed concern about the increase from four to 10 in the number of countries reporting cases of infection with hvKp type 23, a hypervirulent bacterium that is increasingly acquiring a variety of genes associated with resistance to last resort antibiotics used to treat serious infections.
The rise in multidrug-resistant hvKp cases is “a cause for concern because of the severity of the infections coupled with resistance to last-line antibiotics, making infections difficult to treat,” said Dominique Monnet, head of antimicrobial resistance. and infections associated with ECDC Healthcare,” the European organization quoted in a statement.
“The spread of multidrug-resistant HvKp in health care settings is expected to lead to increased mortality among vulnerable patient populations in those settings,” the organization warned.
The emergence of cases of hypervirulent bacteria coupled with resistance to last-line antibiotics is alarming because, “unlike “classical” strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, hvKp strains can cause serious infections in healthy people, often complicated by spread to different parts of the body,” according to the ECDC.