"Classical K. pneumoniae is a germ that dwells in people's intestinal tracts and one that's familiar to doctors. It's known for lurking in health care settings and infecting vulnerable patients, often causing pneumonia or urinary tract infections. But, hvKP is very different. In comparison, it's a beefed up bacteria with a rage complex. It was first identified in the 1980s in Taiwan-not for stalking weak patients in the hospital, but devastating healthy people in normal community settings."
"An infection with hvKP-even in otherwise healthy people-is marked by metastatic infection. That is, the bacteria spread throughout the body, usually starting with the liver, where it creates a pus-filled abscess. Then it goes on a trip through the blood stream, invading the lungs, brain, soft tissue, skin, and the eye (endogenous endophthalmitis). Putting it all together, the man had a completely typical clinical case of an hvKP infection."
"Mucus from the man's respiratory tract grew a species of Klebsiella, but there is not yet a solid diagnostic test to differentiate hvKP from the classical variety. Just since 2024, researchers have worked out a strategy of using the presence of five different virulence genes found on plasmids (relatively small, circular pieces of DNA, separate from chromosomal DNA, that can replicate on their own and be shared among bacteria.) But the method isn't perfect-some classical K. pneumoniae can also carry the five genes."
Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) is a highly aggressive bacterial strain that causes metastatic infections in otherwise healthy people. It typically forms a pus-filled liver abscess and then spreads through the bloodstream to lungs, brain, soft tissue, skin, and the eye. Classical K. pneumoniae usually colonizes the gut and causes hospital-associated infections in vulnerable patients, whereas hvKP emerged in Taiwan in the 1980s and attacks healthy community members. Definitive laboratory identification of hvKP remains difficult. Researchers have proposed detecting five plasmid-borne virulence genes and clinicians use a 'string test' for hypermucoviscosity, but both methods have limitations.
Read at Ars Technica
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]