Increased rates of bla in Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a tertiary care hospital in southern Brazil.

Carbapenem-Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (CRPA) is considered as one of the high priority pathogens by the World Health Organization. As CRPA carbapenemase producers have increased worldwide, the aim of this study was to evaluate the carbapenemase prevalence in CRPA at a tertiary care hospital in Brazil". All 395 CRPA identified in the period of September 2021 to May 2024 were evaluated by multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR-HRM) for the following carbapenemase genes: bla, bla, bla, bla, blabla and bla. In the first period analyzed (September to December 2021), almost 70 % of the isolates were negative for the 7 tested genes, and the bla was found in 27.3 % of the CRPA. In the following semesters there was an increase of bla as follows: January to June of 2022 = 29.8 %; July to December of 2022 = 43.8 %; January to June of 2023 = 42.4 %; July to December 2023 = 58.9 % and January to May of 2024 = 59.5 % of bla. The prevalence of the other carbapenemases remained low. These results indicated an important increase of the bla gene, overcoming the CRPA non-carbapenemase producers in our institution.