Short Communication-Carbapenem sensitivity profile amongst bacterial isolates from clinical specimens in Kanpur city

Emerging antibiotic resistance against carbapenems is a serious issue and urgent measures are required to curb such development of resistance. There is paucity of data on the prevalence of carbapenem resistance in the Indian literature. This study involves a retrospective analysis of culture and sensitivity data on 174 clinical specimens obtained from different hospitals in Kanpur. Of the specimens, 15% grew bacilli which were resistant to at least one of the carbapenems. Of these bacilli 92% were resistant to Meropenem and sensitive to Imipenem. Only one specimen, that of urine grew E-coli which was resistant to Imipenem but sensitive to Meropenem. Staphylococcus aureus constituted majority (77%) of the resistant bacilli. E-coli were the second most common resistant bacilli to be isolated. Pseudomonas aeruginosa constituted 8% (2) of the resistant bacilli. Mengiococcus isolated once from a cerebrospinal fluid specimen was sensitive to Imipenem but resistant to Meropenem. Of the E-coli isolates 3% (3) were resistant. Results indicate alarming increase in the incidence of carbapenem resistance