Health Authorities Issue Rare 'Global Situation' Alert Over Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

Health Authorities Issue Rare 'Global Situation' Alert Over Antibiotic-Resistant Infection

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a "global situation" alert Thursday over a highly dangerous strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae infection that does not respond to antibiotics.

The K. pneumoniae strains were labeled as "hypervirulent" because they can cause severe infections in healthy and weak individuals and have been identified more often in recent years, the WHO wrote in the alert statement. These strains also have an increased tendency to cause "invasive infections." The K. pneumoniae sequence type (ST) 23 strain in particular is reported to resist last-line antibiotics like carbapenems.

The WHO is asking all member states to "progressively increase their laboratory diagnostic capacity to allow for the early and reliable identification" of the infection. The overall risk level is currently at "moderate" due to challenges in tracking, lack of information about lab rates, and an overall gap in data on hospitalizations and other factors showing the current global burden of the disease.

The Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Surveillance System on Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance Reporting (GLASS-EAR) issued a request to 124 countries in early 2024 to gather information on the spread of K. pneumoniae. 

Only 43 countries responded. Sixteen nations and territories reported the presence of the disease, including the U.S. and Canada. Twelve countries reported the presence of the ST23-K1 strain in particular, including Canada.

The bacteria is typically found in the environment and in mammalian mucous membranes, as it colonizes in the throat and gastrointestinal tract. It will typically cause hospitalization in weak individuals.