Since carbapenems have been used for the treatment of infections in medical settings, multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa containing resistance for carbapenems has become a major cause of nosocomial infections worldwide. Information on carbapenemase-producing P. aeruginosa isolates at community hospitals, including long-term care facilities and general hospitals, has rarely been reported in South Korea. The aims of this study were to describe the characteristics of seven carbapenemase-producing P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from two long-term care facilities in South Korea. The carbapenemase genes were identified by PCR and sequencing. Strain typing was assessed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis. Isolates with a genomic island and class I integron surrounding bla_GES-type were confirmed by the PCR mapping method. Of seven GES-type carbapenemase-producing P. aeruginosa isolates, the bla_GES-24 gene was detected in six isolates, and the bla_GES-5 gene was detected in one isolate. The epidemiological relatedness of the seven isolates carrying bla_GES-24 and bla_GES-5 showed >81% similarity. Five isolates carrying bla_GES-24 were sequence type 155 (ST155) by MLST, followed by one ST244 isolate carrying bla_GES-24 and one ST308 isolate carrying bla_GES-5. bla_GES-type genes were embedded in two different class I integrons in a genomic island-15-like region. Our results indicate the possible spread of carbapenemase-producing P. aeruginosa and present a current threat of antimicrobial resistance in community hospitals.

中文翻译：

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来自韩国长期护理机构和综合医院的GES型产碳青霉烯酶的铜绿假单胞菌临床分离株的分子特征。

由于碳青霉烯已在医学环境中用于治疗感染，因此含有耐药性的铜绿假单胞菌对碳青霉烯类耐药已成为全球医院感染的主要原因。韩国很少报道社区医院（包括长期护理机构和综合医院）中产生碳青霉烯酶的铜绿假单胞菌菌株的信息。这项研究的目的是描述七个碳青霉烯酶生产的铜绿假单胞菌的特征从韩国两个长期护理机构中回收的分离株。通过PCR和测序鉴定碳青霉烯酶基因。通过脉冲场凝胶电泳和多基因座序列分型（MLST）分析评估菌株分型。通过PCR作图法确定了带有基因组岛和bla _IGES型的I型整合子的分离株。在七个产生GES型碳青霉烯酶的铜绿假单胞菌分离株中，在六个分离株中检测到bla _GES-24基因，在一个分离株中检测到bla _GES-5基因。携带bla _GES-24和bla _GES-5的7种分离株的流行病学相关性显示出> 81％的相似度。带有bla _GES-24的5个分离株是MLST序列类型155（ST155），然后是一个带有bla _GES-24的ST244分离株和一个带有bla _GES-5的ST308分离株。bla _GES型基因被嵌入基因组15岛状区域的两个不同的I类整合子中。我们的结果表明，产生碳青霉烯酶的铜绿假单胞菌可能传播，并且在社区医院中目前存在抗药性威胁。