Prevalence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea among hospitalized

Jordanian patients

 

 

Shehabi AA, Abu-Ragheb HA, Allaham NA

 

 Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, Jordan University Hospital, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
 

 

We investigated stool specimens of 400 patients at Jordan University Hospital (300 patients with clinical diarrhoea and 100 controls without diarrhoea) for the presence of Clostridium difficile or its toxin. We found a 9.7% prevalence rate of C. difficile or its toxin in stools of patients with diarrhoea. The prevalence of other potential enteric pathogens, such as Salmonella spp. (2.3%), Shigella spp. (1.0%) and Entamoeba histolytica (2.7%), was significantly less. Prevalence of C. difficile or its toxin in controls was 3.0%. Toxin A was detected in 93.1% of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea cases using an enzyme immunoassay. Our study indicates that C. difficile-associated diarrhoea is mostly observed among hospitalized patients aged > or = 50 years, in association with antimicrobial treatment.
 

 


PMID: 15332775 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]