The class D carbapenemase OXA-48 was first detected in 2001 from a carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolate in Istanbul, Turkey. The variant OXA-181, which differs from OXA-48 by four amino acids, was isolated later in India in 2007 from Enterobacter cloacae and K. pneumoniae.
Since then, OXA-181 has been reported in Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Canada, France and New Zealand. Here we report the first case of OXA-181-producing Escherichia coli identified in Lebanon.
This isolate was was recovered from an 80-year-old male patient admitted to the intensive care unit of the American University Hospital in Beirut. The OXA-48-like-carrying gene was localized on IncX3 plasmid.