Strategies to Prevent Clostridium difficile Infections in Acute Care Hospitals: 2014 Update

Abstract

Weber, David J.; Yokoe, Deborah S.; and Gerding, Dale N., ,"Strategies to prevent Clostridium difficile infections in acute care hospitals: 2014 update

Prevention of Clostridium difficile Infection: A Systematic Survey of Clinical Practice Guidelines

“…The included CPGs were developed by (1) the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), 26 (2) the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), 18 (3) the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease, 27 (4) the United Kingdom Health Protection Agency/Department of Health (HPA/DH), 19 and (5) the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America/ Infectious Diseases Society of America (SHEA/IDSA) 28 (Table 1). All were published between 2008 and 2014.…”

Clostridium difficile: The More We Learn, the Less We Know

“…Thus, prevention efforts have relied largely on measures aimed toward reducing the risk of environmental spread within the healthcare setting such as contact precautions and environmental disinfection, as well as antimicrobial stewardship. 4 For many years, C. difficile was generally regarded as an inconvenient but readily treatable cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. In 2003, however, this organism was afforded new respect with the recognition of the North American Pulsed Field type 1 (NAP1)/PCR ribotype 027 strain.…”

Clostridium difficile infection epidemiology and management: Comparison of results of a prospective study with a retrospective one in a reference teaching and research hospital in Northern Italy

“…Prevention efforts for CDI therefore focus on reducing these risks and introducing effective strategies for hospital infection control, combining patient isolation, reinforcement of proper hand hygiene techniques, environmental decontamination, antimicrobial management, and careful epidemiologic monitoring of CDI cases, rates, and trends. 4,5 All over the world, evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of CDIs in hospitals have been published, but evidence for many of these recommendations is weak, 6,7 and the degree of their effective level of prevention of CDIs across different hospital settings is unknown. 8 A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, in Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan (Fondazione), a reference teaching and research hospital in Northern Italy.…”