Isolation and Identification of Klebsiella Species from Various Clinical Samples at a Tertiary Care Hospital, South India

Different Klebsiella species may be responsible for different type of infections, and may also differ with the site of infections. K. pneumoniae subspecies pneumoniae is the most common hospital acquired pathogens causing urinary tract infection, wound infections, meningitis, abscesses, lung infections and stated to cause sepsis and death of newborn in the intensive care unit. They account for about 75% to 80% of all Klebsiella species. Much more rarely encountered species are K. pneumoniae subspecies ozaenae and K. pneumoniae subspecies rhinoscleromatis, which have been retained as separate species because of their association with specific diseases. Taxonomically, these two species are regarded as subspecies of K. Pneumoniae based on DNA-DNA hybridization data. Klebsiella oxytoca is another well-established species, accounting for 13% to 25% of isolates. K. oxytoca is normally isolated from environmental sources.