תקציר
Objectives: The aim was to compare the burden of environmental shedding of toxigenic Clostridioides difficile among asymptomatic carriers, C. difficile-infected (CDI) patients and non-carriers in an inpatient non-epidemic setting. Methods: C. difficile carriage was determined by positive toxin-B PCR from rectal swabs of asymptomatic patients. Active CDI was defined as a positive two-step enzyme immunoassay/polymerase chain reaction (EIA/PCR) test in patients with more than three unformed stools/24 hr. C. difficile environmental contamination was assessed by obtaining specimens from ten sites in the patients' rooms. Toxigenic strains were identified by PCR. We created a contamination scale to define the overall level of room contamination that ranged from clean to heavy contamination. Results: One hundred and seventeen rooms were screened: 70 rooms inhabited by C. difficile carriers, 30 rooms by active CDI patients and 17 rooms by non C. difficile -carriers (control). In the carrier rooms 29 (41%) had more than residual contamination, from which 17 (24%) were heavily contaminated. In the CDI rooms 12 (40%) had more than residual contamination from which three (10%) were heavily contaminated, while in the control rooms, one room (6%) had more than residual contamination and none were heavily contaminated. In a multivariate analysis, the contamination score of rooms inhabited by carriers did not differ from rooms of CDI patients, yet both were significantly more contaminated than those of non-carriers odd ratio 12.23 and 11.16 (95% confidence interval 1.5–99.96 p 0.0195, and 1.19–104.49 p 0.035), respectively. Discussion: Here we show that the rooms of C. difficile carriers are as contaminated as those of patients with active CDI and significantly more than those of non-carriers.
שפה מקורית | אנגלית |
---|---|
עמודים (מ-עד) | 1052-1057 |
מספר עמודים | 6 |
כתב עת | Clinical Microbiology and Infection |
כרך | 26 |
מספר גיליון | 8 |
מזהי עצם דיגיטלי (DOIs) | |
סטטוס פרסום | פורסם - אוג׳ 2020 |
פורסם באופן חיצוני | כן |