Summary: | Surveillance of carbapenem resistance is particularly important for <i>Enterobacterales,</i> mainly in countries with limited healthcare resources. We conducted a cross-sectional study to detect carbapenem-resistant <i>Enterobacterales</i> at 10 sentinel hospitals in Havana, Cuba for a six year-period (2016–2021) by the National Reference Laboratory for Health Care-Associated Infections in the Pedro Kourí Institute. A total of 152 isolates were collected with phenotypic production of metallo-β-lactamase. NDM-type carbapenemase was detected in all the 152 isolates, and KPC-type enzyme gene was simultaneously identified in four NDM-positive isolates. The most abundant carbapenemase-producing <i>Enterobacterales</i> (CPE) species was <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> (69.7%), followed by <i>Enterobacter cloacae</i> complex (13.2%), and <i>Escherichia coli</i> (5.9%). Over the study period, among CPE, prevalence of <i>K. pneumoniae</i> was almost constant, while <i>Enterobacter</i> spp. showed slightly increasing tendency. The urinary tract (36.2%) was the most prevalent source of infection with CPE, followed by bloodstream (26.3%) and surgical wound (17.1%), being frequently derived from Intensive Care Units (35.5%) and urology wards (21.7%). This study revealed the present situation of CPE in hospitals in Havana, Cuba, showing the emergence and dissemination of <i>Enterobacterales</i> producing NDM-type carbapenemase, mainly <i>K. pneumoniae</i>.
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