KPC and VIM producing Enterobacter cloacae strain from a hospital in northeastern Venezuela.

An 83-year-old male patient is admitted to the central hospital in Cumana, Venezuela with severe urinary infection, history of hospitalizaions and prolonged antimicrobial treatments. A strain of Enterobacter cloacae was isolated showing resistance to multiple types of antibiotics (only sensitive to gentamicin), with phenotype of serine- and metallo-carbapenemases. Both, bla(VIM-2) and bla(KPC) genes were detected in the isolate. This is the first report of an Enterobacteriaceae species producing both KPC carbapenemase and VIM metallo carbapenemase in Venezuela. This finding has a great clinical and epidemiological impact in the region, because of the feasibility of transferring these genes, through mobile elements to other strains of Enterobacter and to other infection-causing species of bacteria.