Existing guidelines for control of Clostridium difficile should be reviewed following recent epidemics in several European countries linked to a new hypervirulent strain, according to a recent European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report.
This was the conclusion of a group of leading European scientists working on behalf of ECDC to analyse existing protocols and make recommendations on infection control measures to limit the spread of C. difficile. Although C. difficile is not a new microbe, the emergence and spread of hypervirulent new strains, mostly the so-called PCR ribotype 027, has contributed to multiple outbreaks in hospitals and care homes in Europe.
These outbreaks have been characterised by patients developing severe diarrhoea, sometimes leading to severe inflammation of the bowel and, occasionally, death.
To June this year, C. difficile PCR ribotype 027 had been reported by healthcare facilities in 16 European countries. Outbreaks were reported in nine countries including Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). It was also detected in Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden, and in Scotland. A summary of the situation across Europe is published in ECDC’s scientific journal Eurosurveillance
www.eurosurveillance.org