Risk factors for Clostridium difficile colonisation and toxin production.

Objectives: to examine risk factors for patients becoming Clostridium difficile culture and toxin positive.

Design: prospective cohort study.

Setting: two medicine for the elderly wards.

Clostridium difficile in a geriatric unit: a prospective epidemiological study employing a novel S-layer typing method.

Clostridium difficile is the major identifiable cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in the UK. The aim of this study was to employ traditional culture, toxin detection and a novel typing method to determine the level of C. difficile colonization and disease in a population of elderly patients and to investigate the association between strains in the patients and their environment.

Changes in sensitivity patterns to selected antibiotics in Clostridium difficile in geriatric in-patients over an 18-month period.

Clostridium difficile-associated disease continues to be a major problem in hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout the developed world. Administration of certain antibiotics such as amoxycillin, oral cephalosporins and clindamycin is associated with the greatest risk of developing C. difficile disease.