Escherichia coli with a self-transferable, multiresistant plasmid coding for metallo-beta-lactamase VIM-1.

An Escherichia coli strain exhibiting decreased susceptibility to carbapenems was isolated from a hospitalized patient in Greece. The strain carried a self-transferable plasmid coding for metallo-beta-lactamase VIM-1. bla(VIM-1), along with aacA7, dhfrI, and aadA, was included as a gene cassette in a novel class 1 integron. A Citrobacter freundii ampC-derived gene, not associated with the integron, was also located in the same plasmid.