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Role of Environmental Contamination and Disinfection in Healthcare-Associated Infections: Clostridium difficile.
LANCE R. PETERSON, MD.;
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, IL.
Introduction: C. difficile is responsible for the majority of healthcare-associated infectious diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis, and is rapidly increasing in prevalence. Recently there have been two major clinical developments: i) emergence of a hypervirulent form of the disease and ii) the suggestion that metronidazole is less effective now than in the past. Novel ways for improved control are needed.
Background: It is known that C. difficile spores frequently contaminate the hospital environment (P Verity et al, 2001). Various products are used for disinfection within hospitals. While many are effective against vegetative forms of C. difficile, an effective agent needs to inactivate spores for maximal efficiency. Only chlorine-containing germicides have been consistently shown to inactivate C. difficile spores and to cause an immediate prevention of spore germination (WN Fawley et al, 2007).
Clinical Reports: There have been periodic reports of chlorine-containing cleaners being used to successfully lower C. difficile diarrhea rates when used as an environmental disinfectant. These include in a bone marrow transplant unit (JL Mayfield et al, 2000), a general medicine unit with a high endemic rate (MH Wilcox et al, 2003), in ICUs (KM McMullen et al, 2007), and throughout a 3-hospital healthcare organization (DM Hacek et al, 2007).
Conclusion: The implementation of a cleaning program using chlorine-based germicides, particularly for the rooms of C. difficile positive patients, may be a useful step to lower the rate of C. difficile-associated diarrhea and should be considered, particularly in an outbreak setting or with persistently high endemic rates of disease. |
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