Epidemiological Alert - Dissemination of Carbapenemases in Klebsiella Pneumoniae in Latin-America (2 July 2010)

Recently, the INEI-ANLIS "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán" Laboratory in Buenos Aires, Argentina, published a national alert on the dissemination of carbapenemases in Argentina. This laboratory is responsible for the external quality assurance program of the Latin American Network for Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance, coordinated by PAHO. In this alert, the laboratory reported an increase of 800% in isolations of enterobacterium with carbapenemases in the first four-month period of 2010, in comparison to the same period in the previous year.