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.