US hospitals face ‘Clostridium difficile’ scare

Michael Rubin, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah and lead author of a study published in ‘Jama Network Open’, cautions against Clostridium difficile, a bacterium responsible for a prevalent and highly contagious nosocomial infection. This infection induces diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever, and results in mortality in approximately 6% of cases within the United States. Prior research has suggested that direct patient-to-patient transmission is infrequent; however, the present study, which tracked the bacterium within hospital settings, indicates that C. difficile is circulating on environmental surfaces and in the hands of healthcare professionals to a greater extent than previously recognized. Lindsay Keegan, an epidemiologist at the University of Utah Health and the study’s first author, stated that there is a significant level of circulation of C. difficile between surfaces, from surface to patient, and from patient to surface. Tracking the circulation of this bacterium has demonstrated its notable resilience outside of a host, its resistance to standard antibacterial interventions, and its capacity to remain dormant on surfaces for extended periods, awaiting colonization of a new host. While not all C. difficile strains lead to symptoms, most documented transmissions have involved non-pathogenic bacteria. To prevent the spread of this bacteria, effective hand hygiene practices and the use of personal protective equipment (i.e. gloves, sterile gowns) are crucial.