C. Difficile
Posted By Chris on March 27, 2010
C. Difficile Infection (CDI); what it is, how it is transmitted and what can be done to prevent its spread.
Clostridium Difficile is an Antibiotic- Associated Diarrhea Disease (AAD) found in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and long-term care settings subsequent to antibiotic treatment. It is a tough little anaerobic, gram-positive, spore forming bacillus that produces two exotoxins which attack the mucosal lining of the colon, usually subsequent to antibiotic usage; the action neutralizes the normal flora of the bowel, allowing for C. Dif proliferation.
The clinical signs and symptoms of C. Difficile are abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, nausea and fever. The bacillus is shed in the feces and transmission is by oral ingestion. How does this occur? Contamination of the environment by an infected patient allows for transmission from feces to hands, to surfaces, and then to others, when adequate precautions are not followed.
C. Difficile spores are capable of living in the environment for days, weeks and even months. Severe cases of C. Difficile carry the potential for colon perforation, mega-colon, sepsis and even death.
Treatment of C. Difficile may consist of physician ordered Vancomycin and/or Flagyl but about 23 percent of patients recover within a few days if the offending antibiotics have been discontinued. Of special note: The CDC does not recommend re-culturing of patients who have completed treatment or have resolved on their own and remain asymptomatic because they may be colonized.
Always use Standard precautions for all patients in Long-term Care and use Transmission Based Precautions for known or suspected infections. With symptomatic C. Difficile patients with watery diarrhea may be placed on contact precautions until asymptomatic, which means no further diarrhea.
The CDC recommendations for hand hygiene when caring for patients with C. Difficile consist of hand washing; alcohol sanitizers are not effective against C. Difficile spores. Hand washing does not kill the spores but the friction with soap and running water allows for them to be washed down the drain.
Environmental cleaning consists of Hypochlorite/bleach solutions with careful attention to protocols for contact time. Information can be found in the CDC’S Frequently Asked Questions about C. Difficile for professionals: CDC
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