Clostridium difficile infection in Italian urban hospitals: data from 2006 through 2011.

Background: In developed countries, Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) represents an emerging threat in terms of morbidity and mortality rates. In our country limited CDI epidemiological data can be found.

Methods: Stool samples tested for C.

Proposal to elevate the genetic variant MAC-A, included in the Mycobacterium avium complex, to species rank as Mycobacterium chimaera sp. nov.

The possibility that the strains included within the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), but not belonging either to M. avium or to Mycobacterium intracellulare, may be members of undescribed taxa, has already been questioned by several taxonomists. A very homogeneous cluster of 12 strains characterized by identical nucleotide sequences both in the 16S rDNA and in the 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer was investigated.