Paper Title
The Prevalence of Metallo-β-Lactamase Genes in Imipenem and Meropenem Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Patients in El-Obied Hospitals – Sudan

Abstract
Acquired Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) are emerging worldwide as powerful resistance determinants. So far, six MBL enzyme types have been described in clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa-VIM, IMP, SPM, GIM, NDM and AIM type.This study aimed to determine the prevalence of Metallo-β-Lactamase genes in imipenem and meropenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from Elobied Hospitals. All collected specimens (721) were cultured and identified using API 12A/12E. Hundred (100) isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing (Kirby Bauer), for selected imipenem and meropenem. PCR was performed for detection of blaVIM-1, NDM-1and VIM like genes in imipenem and meropenem resistant P. aeruginosa strains. Nineteen (19%) and 14(14%) isolates were found resistant to imipenem and meropenem respectively, 1/19(5.26 %) of isolated resistant P. aeruginosa carry the NDM-1 gene, and 1/14 (7.1 %) carried the VIM gene which encoding resistant to imipenem and meropenem respectively, while no detection to blaVIM-1gene in our study. The study concluded that evidence of the presence of the NDM-1 and VIM genes, while none of the isolated P. aeruginosa strains carry blaVIM-1. Further studies and a regular monitoring system for early detection of MBL-producing organisms are recommended. Keywords - MBLs, P. aeruginosa, NDM-1, VIM-1, VIM, imipenem and meropenem.