Journal article
Recurrence of clostridium difficile infection in the Western Australian population
Epidemiology and Infection, Vol.147
2019
Abstract
Clostridium difficile, the most common cause of hospital-associated diarrhoea in developed countries, presents major public health challenges. The high clinical and economic burden from C. difficile infection (CDI) relates to the high frequency of recurrent infections caused by either the same or different strains of C. difficile. An interval of 8 weeks after index infection is commonly used to classify recurrent CDI episodes. We assessed strains of C. difficile in a sample of patients with recurrent CDI in Western Australia from October 2011 to July 2017. The performance of different intervals between initial and subsequent episodes of CDI was investigated. Of 4612 patients with CDI, 1471 (32%) were identified with recurrence. PCR ribotyping data were available for initial and recurrent episodes for 551 patients. Relapse (recurrence with same ribotype (RT) as index episode) was found in 350 (64%) patients and reinfection (recurrence with new RT) in 201 (36%) patients. Our analysis indicates that 8- and 20-week intervals failed to adequately distinguish reinfection from relapse. In addition, living in a non-metropolitan area modified the effect of age on the risk of relapse. Where molecular epidemiological data are not available, we suggest that applying an 8-week interval to define recurrent CDI requires more consideration.
Details
- Title
- Recurrence of clostridium difficile infection in the Western Australian population
- Authors/Creators
- M. Alfayyadh (Author/Creator) - The University of Western AustraliaD.A. Collins (Author/Creator) - Edith Cowan UniversityS. Tempone (Author/Creator) - Government of Western Australia Department of HealthR. McCann (Author/Creator) - Government of Western Australia Department of HealthP.K. Armstrong (Author/Creator) - Government of Western Australia Department of HealthT.V. Riley (Author/Creator) - Edith Cowan UniversityA. Cook (Author/Creator) - The University of Western Australia
- Publication Details
- Epidemiology and Infection, Vol.147
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Identifiers
- 991005541884107891
- Copyright
- © 2019 The Author(s)
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Metrics
43 File views/ downloads
46 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International 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
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general