30Jun 2014

Prevalence of C. difficile in patients with antibiotic associated diarrhea in a tertiary care hospital.

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Context: C. difficile is a major cause of hospital acquired diarrhea. Aims: A prospective study was carried out to determine the prevalence of C. difficile in patients with antibiotic associated diarrhea (AAD) in a tertiary care hospital. Methods and Material: 162 stool samples were examined over a two year period for toxin A and toxin B via C. difficile Toxin A+B Stool Antigen Microwell ELISA kit (IVD Research Inc.). Clinical and demographic data was collected from all patients. Results: The prevalence of C. difficile associated diarrhea was found to be 4.32%. Highest number of C. difficile toxin positive cases was from stool samples of patients admitted in oncology/ hematology followed by internal medicine. Median time of occurrence of symptoms was 7 days after admittance to hospital. All the patients were on multiple antibiotics. Conclusion: This present prospective study draws attention to the role of C. difficile as a cause of AAD in our hospital. Active and aggressive surveillance and sampling before putting patients empirically on anti- C. difficile treatment will determine the true prevalence of C. difficile in our hospital. Timely laboratory results of C. difficile testing can impact decisions regarding antibiotic therapy and infection control measures.


[Gulnaz Bashir, Danish Zahoor, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Dalip Kumar Kakru, TehmeenaWani, Bashir Ahmad Fomda (2014); Prevalence of C. difficile in patients with antibiotic associated diarrhea in a tertiary care hospital. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 2 (Jun). 0] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com


Gulnaz Bashir