Production and coproduction of carbapenemases in Enterobacterales isolated from patients in a Peruvian hospital treated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Peru, from May 2021 to March 2022, hospital care was restricted due to the second and third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period a large number of cases of acute respiratory infections increased. With increasing resistance to antibacterials, the search for and identification of carbapenemase co-producing Enterobacteriaceae is of paramount therapeutic importance because it limits the use of available antibiotics. Objective: To determine the Enterobacterales species that present carbapenemase: KPC, NMD and OXA 48 in patients treated in a COVID hospital in Trujillo-Peru, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: In this descriptive, observational study, biological samples were collected from patients treated in general medicine, emergency, and intensive care units - ICU of Hospital IV "Víctor Lazarte Echegaray" for bacterial identification and sensitivity to carbapenems. removed AutoScan-4 automated system, and the rapid diagnostic immunochromatographic tests RESISIT-3 OKN K-SET were used to determine the type of carbapenemase present in each culture. Results: Of a total of 134 Enterobacterales cultures, Klebsiella pneumoniae is the one with the highest resistance to imipenem and meropenem; the highest prevalence of resistance for both carbapenems was obtained in the ICU (n=22; 54.6%) compared to that obtained in general and emergency medicine. Conclusions: Most K. pneumoniae cultures showed KPC-type carbapenemase, and no bacteria were found capable of co-producing two or more carbapenemases.