Predominance of Clostridium difficile 027 during a five-year period in Bolzano, Northern Italy.

Toxigenic Clostridium difficile is responsible for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and other diseases. The increasing frequency and severity is attributed to highly-virulent ribotypes such as 027. The aim of the study was to collect epidemiological and molecular data for C.

Changes in colonization of residents and staff of a long-term care facility and an adjacent acute-care hospital geriatric unit by multidrug-resistant bacteria over a four-year period.

Background: In 2012 we undertook a screening study for Enterobacteriaceae with extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), derepressed or acquired high-level AmpC cephalosporinases, and metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs), and also methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), in a long-term care facility (LTCF1) and the associated acute care hospital geriatric ward in Bolzano, northern Italy. The study followed up an initial survey carried out in LTCF1 in 2008. For comparison, screening in 2012 was extended to a second LTCF.