Friday, October 08, 2010

What's new with C. diff?

Not much in the treatment arena, but new epidemiologic patterns are emerging. From a recent review :


Clostridium difficile infection incidence is increasing in hospitalized patients and outpatients, with more severe disease and poorer outcomes...

 A significant fraction of cases of CA-CDI are not associated with traditional risk factors, such as antibiotic exposure, increased age, other comorbidities or prior hospitalization. Therefore, the absence of these risk factors is unreliable for ruling out CA-CDI, and testing for CDI in patients with acute diarrhea, even without risk factors, should be considered.


Free full text via Medscape. CA-CDI is community associated Clostridium difficile infection.

No comments: