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Published (Version of Record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Prevalence of Clostridium difficile colonization among healthcare workers
BMC Infectious Diseases, Vol.13, Article number: 459
2013
Abstract
Background
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has increased to epidemic proportions in recent years. The carriage of C. difficile among healthy adults and hospital inpatients has been established. We sought to determine whether C. difficile colonization exists among healthcare workers (HCWs) in our setting.
Methods
A point prevalence study of stool colonization with C. difficile among doctors, nurses and allied health staff at a large regional teaching hospital in Geelong, Victoria. All participants completed a short questionnaire and all stool specimens were tested by Techlab® C.diff Quik Check enzyme immunoassay followed by enrichment culture.
Results
Among 128 healthcare workers, 77% were female, of mean age 43 years, and the majority were nursing staff (73%). Nineteen HCWs (15%) reported diarrhoea, and 12 (9%) had taken antibiotics in the previous six weeks. Over 40% of participants reported having contact with a patient with known or suspected CDI in the 6 weeks before the stool was collected. C. difficile was not isolated from the stool of any participants.
Conclusion
Although HCWs are at risk of asymptomatic carriage and could act as a reservoir for transmission in the hospital environment, with the use of a screening test and culture we were unable to identify C. difficile in the stool of our participants in a non-outbreak setting. This may reflect potential colonization resistance of the gut microbiota, or the success of infection prevention strategies at our institution.
Details
- Title
- Prevalence of Clostridium difficile colonization among healthcare workers
- Authors/Creators
- N.D. Friedman (Author/Creator) - Barwon HealthJ. Pollard (Author/Creator) - Barwon HealthD. Stupart (Author/Creator) - Barwon HealthD.R. Knight (Author/Creator) - The University of Western AustraliaM. Khajehnoori (Author/Creator) - Deakin UniversityE.K Davey (Author/Creator) - Barwon HealthL. Parry (Author/Creator) - Barwon HealthT.V. Riley (Author/Creator) - The University of Western Australia
- Publication Details
- BMC Infectious Diseases, Vol.13, Article number: 459
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Identifiers
- 991005540199907891
- Copyright
- © Friedman et al.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.120 Inflammatory Bowel Diseases & Infections
- 1.120.1133 Clostridium Infections
- Web Of Science research areas
- Infectious Diseases
- ESI research areas
- Immunology