ObjectiveTo examine demographic as well as clinical characteristics of theCarbapenam Resistant Enteriobacteriacae (CRE) Organisms cases inHouston, Texas, 2015-2016IntroductionAccording to CDC, CRE is used to describe bacteria that are non-susceptible to one or more carbapenems; doripenem, meropenemor imipenem and resistant to third generation cephalosporins likeceftriaxone, cefotaxime and ceftazidime. These organisms causeinfections that are associated with high mortality rates and they havethe potential to spread widely. Antibiotic resistant bacteria causemore than 2 million illnesses and at least 23,000 deaths each year inUnited States. CREs are found in many health care settings like acutecare hospitals, long term care facilities, nursing homes, rehabilitationfacilities and other health care settings. Although CREs includes anumber of species, reporting in State of Texas is limited to CRE-Klebsiellaspecies and CRE-E.coli.MethodsPopulation-based surveillance data was generated from Houston’selectronic disease surveillance system reported to Houston HealthDepartment (HHD) from October 2015 to July 2016. Descriptiveanalysis was performed to examine demographic and clinicalcharacteristics across different age groups, gender and race/ethnicity.HHD has received a total of 463 CRE cases during the time period,out of which 72 were non-reportable and did not meet the casecriteria, 187 were out of jurisdiction. The remaining 204 cases wereincluded in this study.ResultsOut of a total of 204 cases, males and females were representedequally (50% each). The mean age of the cases was 67 years(age ranges from 22-98). Majority of the cases were in the older agegroup, 70 years and above 53 (26%), followed by 48 (24%) in agegroup 80 and above years. Among the different race/ethnic groups,African-Americans comprised of 82 (40%), followed by Whites67 (33%) and Hispanics 33 (16%). Out of 204 cases, 156 (76%)were hospitalized, which included acute care hospital, long-termacute care or nursing home. Out of 156 hospitalized cases, 71 (34%)were in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 136 (67%) had an invasiveor indwelling device. Of all the cases, 80% had CREKlebsiellapneumoniae, followed by 11% who had CRE- E coli. The cases weredistributed evenly across the city when plotted on ArcGIS with theirresidential addresses.ConclusionsCRE cases are found to be more common among older age groups,African American population and in hospitalized patients. CRE canbe a ground for increasing infectious diseases in the community andone of the reason may be unnecessary use of antimicrobial agents.This study provides a glimpse into the number of CRE cases reportedin Houston since CREs are classified a separate disease in Texas.Further studies are needed to explore the occurrence of anti-microbialdrug resistance among the specific population groups and how thecase investigation efforts can be targeted to enhance prevention.