Virulence-Associated Genes and Hypermucoviscosity in Klebsiella pneumoniae from Burn Patients /// Klebsiella pneumoniae is an important opportunistic pathogen that can cause severe infections in hospitalized patients, particularly those with burn wounds, due to its possession of several virulence factors that facilitate colonization and enable evasion of host defenses. One of the important virulence-associated characteristics of this bacterium is the hypermucoviscosity phenotype, which can be detected using the string test. This phenotype has been associated with several virulence-related genes, particularly rmpA and magA. In a study conducted on clinical samples collected from burn patients in Babylon Province, K. pneumoniae was isolated from 35 of 100 samples, with 80% of the isolates exhibiting the hypermucoviscous phenotype, indicating a high prevalence of this characteristic among the studied isolates. The rmpA gene was more frequently detected, being present in 22 isolates (62.86%), whereas magA was detected in 9 isolates (25.71%). Statistical analysis revealed a significant association between rmpA carriage and a positive string test (p = 0.0039), supporting the role of rmpA in the hypermucoviscosity phenotype among the studied isolates. These findings highlight the prevalence of important virulence-associated characteristics in K. pneumoniae isolated from burn patients and contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between phenotypic characteristics and virulence-associated genes, which may support future studies on the diagnosis and pathogenic potential of these isolates. المصدر 10.21608/mid.2026.497830.4120