Clinical and genomic characteristics of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae isolated from throat culture suggesting an emerging causative agent of pharyngitis.

Gregory D Whitehill, Shekina Gonzalez-Ferrer, Allison T Tsan, Shangxin Yang

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Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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4 authors.

Gregory D Whitehill *Division of Infectious Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Shekina Gonzalez-Ferrer *Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Allison T TsanDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Shangxin YangDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. shangxinyang@mednet.ucla.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) is rarely implicated in non-invasive infections. We report eleven cases of pharyngitis with whole genome sequencing of throat culture isolates identifying hvKp. Most cases (64%) occurred in the summer months of June to September. Cases were geographically diverse and only one patient reported recent travel outside of the continental US. No patients were diabetic or immunosuppressed, though five patients (45%) were prescribed inhaled or intranasal corticosteroids. Clinical presentation was indistinguishable from viral or streptococcal pharyngitis. All isolates were string-test positive. Genetic serotyping and multi-locus sequence typing identified four unique strains: K2-ST3252 (n = 4 cases), K1-ST23 (n = 3 cases), K2-ST66 (n = 3 cases), and K2-ST2039 (n = 1). Virulence biomarkers iucA, iroB, peg-344, and rmpA were present in all isolates, with rmpA2 only in ST23 isolates. Four hypervirulence-associated plasmids were identified, with ST23 isolates additionally harboring antimicrobial resistance associated plasmids. All isolates carried fluoroquinolone-resistance genes oqxA and oqxB, and ST23 isolates expressing beta-lactamase (bla

Indexed as

Klebsiella InfectionsKlebsiella pneumoniaePharyngitisPharynxAdultAgedAnti-Bacterial AgentsDrug Resistance, BacterialFemaleGenome, BacterialHumansMaleMicrobial Sensitivity TestsMiddle AgedMultilocus Sequence TypingPlasmidsAnti-Bacterial AgentsVirulence FactorsHvKpHypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniaePharyngitisWhole genome sequencing

Identifiers

PMID42192319

DOI10.1186/s12879-026-13654-3

PMCPMC13397599

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