ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Sunita Mangesh Bhatawadekar, Lata Satish Yadav, Aishwarya Babu and Meera Sujeet Modak
Department of Microbiology, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University Medical College, Dhankawadi, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Article Number: 8409 | © The Author(s). 2023
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2023;17(3):1471-1476. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.17.3.08
Received: 07 January 2023 | Accepted: 05 June 2023 | Published online: 20 July 2023
Issue online: September 2023
Abstract

Antibiotic-associated Clostridium difficile (CD) diarrhoea is one of the common causes of healthcare-acquired infection. Cephalosporins, piperacillin-tazobactam and aminoglycosides are the common antibiotics which have the maximum chances of producing Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Most Asian countries have easy accessibility to many of these antibiotics without prescription. Broad spectrum antibiotics have been indiscriminately used as empirical therapy over the last two decades which has resulted in an increased risk of C. difficile infection. In India, the prevalence of CDI is highly underestimated. This study aims to understand the prevalence, risk factors and comorbidities associated with CD diarrhoea in a tertiary care hospital from western India. 196 patients were included in the study who were diagnosed with antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) clinically. Stool samples collected were processed for anaerobic culture of C. difficile and immunochromatography test was done to detect C. difficile toxins A and B. The comorbidities associated as well as the use of antibiotics like cephalosporin or proton pump inhibitors were also noted for the patients with CDI. 32 samples yielded CD (16%), out of which toxin production was detected only in 16 isolates. The prevalence rate of CDI in our hospital was 5%. Most of the patients had history of chronic illnesses like diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, ischemic heart disease, systemic hypertension, autoimmune diseases, or malignancy. Avoiding empirical therapy with antibiotics prone to cause AAD, Antimicrobial stewardship programme with proper infection control practices and epidemiological surveillance of CDI will help to reduce the burden of CDI in our country.

Keywords

Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhoea, Clostridium difficile Infection, Comorbidities, Risk Factors, Toxins

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© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.