TY - JOUR
T1 - Community-acquired clostridium difficile infection
T2 - An increasing public health threat
AU - Gupta, Arjun
AU - Khanna, Sahil
PY - 2014/3/17
Y1 - 2014/3/17
N2 - There has been a startling shift in the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection over the last decade worldwide, and it is now increasingly recognized as a cause of diarrhea in the community. Classically considered a hospital-acquired infection, it has now emerged in populations previously considered to be low-risk and lacking the traditional risk factors for C. difficile infection, such as increased age, hospitalization, and antibiotic exposure. Recent studies have demonstrated great genetic diversity for C. difficile, pointing toward diverse sources and a fuid genome. Environmental sources like food, water, and animals may play an important role in these infections, apart from the role symptomatic patients and asymptomatic carriers play in spore dispersal. Prospective strain typing using highly discriminatory techniques is a possible way to explore the suspected diverse sources of C. difficile infection in the community. Patients with community-acquired C. difficile infection do not necessarily have a good outcome and clinicians should be aware of factors that predict worse outcomes in order to prevent them. This article summarizes the emerging epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes for community-acquired C. difficile infection.
AB - There has been a startling shift in the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection over the last decade worldwide, and it is now increasingly recognized as a cause of diarrhea in the community. Classically considered a hospital-acquired infection, it has now emerged in populations previously considered to be low-risk and lacking the traditional risk factors for C. difficile infection, such as increased age, hospitalization, and antibiotic exposure. Recent studies have demonstrated great genetic diversity for C. difficile, pointing toward diverse sources and a fuid genome. Environmental sources like food, water, and animals may play an important role in these infections, apart from the role symptomatic patients and asymptomatic carriers play in spore dispersal. Prospective strain typing using highly discriminatory techniques is a possible way to explore the suspected diverse sources of C. difficile infection in the community. Patients with community-acquired C. difficile infection do not necessarily have a good outcome and clinicians should be aware of factors that predict worse outcomes in order to prevent them. This article summarizes the emerging epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes for community-acquired C. difficile infection.
KW - Clostridium difficile
KW - Community acquired infection
KW - Epidemiology
KW - Outcome
KW - Risk factors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84897824639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84897824639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2147/IDR.S46780
DO - 10.2147/IDR.S46780
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84897824639
SN - 1178-6973
VL - 7
SP - 63
EP - 72
JO - Infection and Drug Resistance
JF - Infection and Drug Resistance
ER -