Outbreak of Clostridioides difficile infection in Silesian district hospital

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In order to evaluate a Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) outbreak between December 2018 and February 2019 in the internal medicine ward of a district hospital in Silesia, 6 stools from 5 patients were examined. MATERIAL AND METHODS: C. difficile was identified, genes encoding glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) – gluD, A/B – tcdA/tcdB and binary – cdtA/cdtB toxins, ermB were determined by mPCR and antibiotic resistance by means of E-Tests. RESULTS: Women predominated among the patients (4/5). All the 6 C. difficile isolates belonged to hyperepidemic ribotype 027, were positive for all genes and were resistant to moxifloxacin, erythromycin, clindamycin, rifampicin, imipenem, and chloramphenicol. CONCLUSIONS: The obtained results indicate that the hyperepidemic C. difficile clone is spreading in the ward.

Keywords

• clostridioides difficile infection
• outbreak
• clostridioides difficile toxins