Unknown Organism # 4
Klebsiella pneumonia Klebsiella pneumonia has a rod gram stain with the agar slant cultural characteristics being slimy, white, somewhat translucent, raised growth. It is small gram-negative coccobacilli that can cause lobar pneumonia. The litmus milk reaction is acid, gas, and curd with a variable reaction. Klebsiella can grow either in the presence or absence of oxygen because of its nature of being a facultative anaerobe. Oxygen is a preferred energy source; however in the absence of oxygen the organism can resort to a sugar-fermenting metabolism to comply with energy requirements. Because its temperature requirements for growth are between 97-99 degrees F, it has no problem residing within …show more content…
The researcher had an epidemic of ceftazidime-resistant Klebsiella. The book goes on to describe the researcher’s worry about the resistance, so he resorted to imipenem which usually worked when drugs were resistant. Initially the imipenem knocked out the ceftazidime resistance; however after one day he discovered that Klebsiella had become resistant to imipenem. As a result a number of infected patient’s began to die due to resistance to the available drugs. Rahal became distressed and was shocked with the outcome; however he approached this problem with the idea that to cease using ceftazidime and other cephalosporins. Over years and years the patients took longer to get well; however no one died. He reduced the incidence of ceftazidime-resistant Klebsiella by 87.5%. In the early 1920’s there was a significantly high concern about K. pneumonia; however in recent years there hasn’t been a very high rate of pneumonia requiring hospitalization in North America. The bacteria belong to the ESBL (extended –spectrum beta-lactamase) and are common multi-resistant to many broad-acting antibiotics such as the aforementioned (ceftazidime, cephalosporins. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as Cirpro and Levaquin are a current option for Klebsiella treatment. After research, it was found that Levaquin can be used to treat pneumonia and urinary tract infections