Current epidemiology and treatment of Clostridium difficile infection

Hyunjoo Pai

doi:10.3947/ic.2010.42.6.362

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Pai: Current epidemiology and treatment of Clostridium difficile infection

Review Article

Infection & Chemotherapy

Infection & Chemotherapy 2010; 42(6): 362-368.

Published online: 31 December 2010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2010.42.6.362

Current epidemiology and treatment of Clostridium difficile infection

Hyunjoo Pai

Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to Hyunjoo Pai, M.D. Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, 17 Hangdang-dong, Sungdong-gu, Seoul 133-070, Korea. Tel: +82-2-2290-8356, Fax: +82-2-2298-9183, paihj@hanyang.ac.kr

Received 7 December 2010 Accepted 7 December 2010

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

With the emergence of B1/NAP1 strain of Clostridium difficile, epidemic feature of C. difficile infection (CDI) has been changing in North America. Clinical manifestation of CDI caused by B1/NAP1 strain is more severe resulting in high mortality and complications, and relapse rate is higher. In Korea, the epidemic feature of CDI is not clearly demonstrated yet. Infection by B1/NAP1 strain was reported recently, but the prevalence of the infections by those strains seems to be not high yet. For the management of CDI, conventional treatment of vancomycin or metronidazole is still the choice of treatment, however, several clinical trials of CDI treatment are progressing; fidaxomicin, monoclonal antibody, toxoid vaccine, and luminal non-toxigenic C. difficile infusion. Thus, it is expected to have more effective treatment or prevention modality of CDI in near future.

Keywords: Clostridium difficile, Epidemiology, Clinical characteristics, Diagnosis, Treatment

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Meta analyses of association between prior antibiotics use and Clostridium difficile infection [5].

Figure 2

National estimates of US short-stay hospital discharges with Clostridium difficile infections as first-listed or any diagnosis (1996-2003) [6].

Table 1

Sensitivity and Specificity of Diagnostic Laboratory Test for Clostridium difficile Infection [19-21]

Table 2

Criteria of Severe Clostridium difficile Infection [23, 26]

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