Identification of VIM-2-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Tanzania is associated with sequence types 244 and 640 and the location of blaVIM-2 in a TniC integron

Abstract

Epidemiological data on carbapenemase-producing Gram-negative bacteria on the African continent are limited. Here, we report the identification of VIM-2-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in Tanzania. Eight out of 90 clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from a tertiary care hospital in Dar es Salaam were shown to harbor blaVIM-2. The blaVIM-2-positive isolates belonged to two different sequence types (ST), ST244 and ST640, with blaVIM-2 located in an unusual integron structure lacking the 3′ conserved region of qacΔE1-sul1.