The Gram-negative bacterial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae has consistently evolved over the past two decades, generating genetic variants that exhibit mixed phenotypes of hyper-resistance and hypervirulence including carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP), hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (HvKP) and carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (CR-HvKP). These bacterial strains were found to persist as ‘normal flora’ in patients and remain viable for a prolonged period in clinical settings, resulting in further dissemination and infections among hospital patients. Treatment with the last resort antibiotics such as ceftazidime/avibactin and colistin readily leads to the development of resistance, resulting in extremely limited choices of agents for treatment of infections caused by these superbugs. Comprehensive surveillance data in China showed that K. pneumoniae has become the most common clinically isolated bacterial pathogens since 2014. It is also listed as the most common bacterial pathogen that causes blood stream infections and the bacterial species that causes the highest mortality rate. It is commonly accepted that K. pneumoniae poses a major threat to hospital patients, with the situation being out of control in certain countries in Asia. A thorough understanding of the evolution trend, transmission dynamics and pathogenic mechanisms of this notorious pathogen is essential for development of effective intervention strategies to promptly prevent it from being further disseminated to a scale of global public health calamity. In this talk, I will share with you the updates research conducted in our lab on the understanding of evolution and current trend of K. pneumoniae in clinical setting.

The relationship between intensive care medicine and healthcare quality and safety will be explored in this session. From the exploration, the speaker will identify opportunities and threats to share with the audience.