In early 2024, the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Surveillance System on Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance Reporting (GLASS-EAR) issued a request for information to assess the current global situation given the increased identification of isolates of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) sequence type (ST) 23 carrying resistant genes to the carbapenem antibiotics – carbapenemase genes.
K. pneumoniae strains that can cause severe infections in healthy individuals and have been identified with increasing frequency in recent years are considered hypervirulent compared to classical strains because of their ability to infect both healthy and immunocompromised individuals and because of their increased tendency to produce invasive infections.The presence of hvKp ST23 was reported in at least one country in all six WHO Regions.
The emergence of these isolates with resistance to last-line antibiotics like carbapenems necessitates the administration of alternative antimicrobial treatment, which may not be available in many contexts. WHO recommends that Member States progressively increase their laboratory diagnostic capacity to allow for the early and reliable identification of hvKp, as well as reinforce laboratory capacities in molecular testing and detection and analyses of relevant virulence genes in addition to resistance genes.
The assessment of risk at the global level is moderate given the challenges with surveillance, lack of information on laboratory testing rates, track and scale of community transmission, the gap in the available data on infections, hospitalization, and the overall burden of the disease.
