Molecular Characterization of Carbapenemase-Producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella in children with diarrhea in rural Burkina Faso.

Abstract Background In recent years, Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) resistance to antibiotics has dramatically increased leading to limitations of their treatment options. In the present study, we investigated the occurrence of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella in rural Burkina Faso, using bacterial strains obtained from previous studies. Results Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli (DEC) strains was identified using 16-plex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), whereas antibiotic susceptibility was realized using the disk diffusion method. Furthermore, multiplex PCR assays were used to characterize bla KPC, bla VIM and bla IMP genes in carbapenemase-producing E . coli and Salmonella . The study highlighted high resistance rates of the identified bacteria to common antibiotics. Likewise, two strains of E . coli were imipenem resistant with Carbapenemase-encoding genes. The genes detected were Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC), Verona integrin-encoded metallo-β-lactamase (VIM) and Imipenemase (IMP-2) reaching a rate of 40% each. However, no Carbapenemase-encoding genes were detected in Salmonella isolates. Conclusions This study showed that for a real-time infection control and prompt application of antimicrobial chemotherapy, characterization of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in patients is crucial.