title: Preliminary investigation of environmental prevalence of Clostridium difficile affecting inpatients in a north Indian hospital.
abstract: A preliminary study was conducted to see the prevalence of Clostridium difficile in patients and their environment in a tertiary care hospital. Seventy-nine fecal specimens from hospitalized patients, 176 swab samples from beds and 48 from hands of hospital personnel were investigated. Sixty-three patients received antibiotics and 14 proton pump inhibitors. Abdominal pain was observed in 16 patients with fever in 15 of them. C. difficile culture was positive in 12.6% patients at initial sampling but none were toxin-positive. Eight patients developed diarrhea and five were both culture and toxin-positive. Fifty-one percent of bed swab samples and 62.5% of hand swab samples were culture positive. Similarly 8.5% of bed swab samples and 4.2% of hand swab samples were positive for toxins A and B. The environmental cross-infection between patients and carriage by hospital personnel are plausible sources of C. difficile infection and spread in our hospital.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160 012, India. c.vaishnavi@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vaishnavi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016360:Clostridioides difficile / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents