Nicola Petrosillo
National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Italy
Title: Clostridium difficile infection in the healthcare setting
Biography
Biography: Nicola Petrosillo
Abstract
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is one of the most common cause of healthcare-related infection in hospitals and is thus a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, asymptomatic carriage of C. difficile is believed to occur in about up to 7% of healthy adults and in about 11-25% of hospitalized patients; and may therefore contribute to healthcare transmission. Despite specific antibiotic therapy, approximately 14-25% of patients will develop recurrence of CDI.rnThe most important risk factor for CDI is prior or ongoing antibiotic therapy which can disrupt the normal intestinal flora and allow C. difficile to colonize the gut. Other risk factors include chemotherapy, solid organ and bone transplantation, and chronic treatment with proton pump inhibitors. Specific patient groups are also considered to be at risk, e.g. elderly, chronically ill, individuals with inflammatory bowel disease, and immunocompromised patients. However, CDI is becoming an increasingly common cause of community-acquired diarrhoea in low-risk populations, such as children, healthy adults, and pregnant women.rnSpecific guidelines to limit the spread of CDI in the healthcare setting have been recently issued, that incorporate diagnosis, isolation measures, hand hygiene, environmental control including cleaning and disinfection, measures for improving the hospital layout, antimicrobial stewardship programmes, and prevention of recurrent CDI in patients requiring antimicrobial therapy.rn