Metallo-beta-lactamase-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in Tunisia.

This study was conducted to identify metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL) producers among a collection of 75 nonrepetitive carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates recovered between November 2003 and May 2007 at the University Hospital Sahloul, Sousse, Tunisia. Five isolates produced the MBL VIM-2. Those bla(VIM-2)-positive isolates were clonally related according to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis. This carbapenemase was very likely chromosomally located and as a form of a gene cassette in a class 1 integron. This is the 1st report of spread of VIM-2 producers in Tunisia.