Survey of Clostridium difficile infection surveillance systems in Europe, 2011

Abstract

To develop a European surveillance protocol for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), existing national CDI surveillance systems were assessed in 2011. A web-based electronic form was provided for all national coordinators of the European CDI Surveillance Network (ECDIS-Net). Of 35 national coordinators approached, 33 from 31 European countries replied. Surveillance of CDI was in place in 14 of the 31 countries, comprising 18 different nationwide systems. Three of 14 countries with CDI surveillance used public health notification of cases as the route of reporting, and in another three, reporting was limited to public health notification of cases of severe CDI. The CDI definitions published by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) were widely used, but there were differing definitions to distinguish between community- and healthcare-associated cases. All CDI surveillance systems except one reported annual national CDI rates (calculated as number of cases per patient-days). Only four surveillance systems regularly integrated microbiological data (typing and susceptibility testing results). Surveillance methods varied considerably between countries, which emphasises the need for a harmonised European protocol to allow consistent monitoring of the CDI epidemiology at European level. The results of this survey were used to develop a harmonised EU-wide hospital-based CDI surveillance protocol.

How to: Surveillance of Clostridium difficile infections

“…2). This is more than was reported in a similar survey in 2011, when a CDI surveillance system was in place in only 14 of the 31 responding European countries [20].…”

“…The designation of case origin is determined by the time and place of the onset of CDI symptoms [2,11,17,18,20], (Fig. 1b).…”

Association of <i>Clostridium difficile</i> with Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea among Hospitalized Children in Diyala-Iraq

“…difficile infection is associated with about one third of antibiotic associated diarrhea among one-year-old hospitalized children in Diyala province. Asserting that the present study obtained an accurate picture of the real dimensions of the CDI, a more systematic use of an adequate and universal diagnostic strategy was requested plus the implementation of continuous monitoring of CDI through surveillance programme [16] [21]. The study recommends that CDI should be included in the routine differential diagnoses for hospitalized children presenting with AAD in health care settings.…”

Clostridioides difficile in national food surveillance, Slovenia, 2015 to 2017

“…Clostridioides difficile is an important cause of intestinal infections in humans. The global rates of C. difficile infections (CDI) have increased considerably over the past two decades [1][2][3][4]. In Slovenia, the reporting of CDI is obligatory.…”