Journal article
Point-Counterpoint: Active Surveillance for Carriers of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile Should Be Performed To Guide Prevention Efforts
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Vol.56(8), e00782-18
2018
DOI: 10.1128/JCM.00782-18
PMCID: PMC6062805
PMID: 29769275
Abstract
In 2017, the
Journal of Clinical Microbiology
published a Point-Counterpoint on the laboratory diagnosis of
Clostridium difficile
infection (CDI). At that time, Ferric C.
In 2017, the
Journal of Clinical Microbiology
published a Point-Counterpoint on the laboratory diagnosis of
Clostridium difficile
infection (CDI). At that time, Ferric C. Fang, Christopher R. Polage, and Mark H. Wilcox discussed the strategies for diagnosing
Clostridium difficile
colitis in symptomatic patients (J Clin Microbiol 55:670–680, 2017,
https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02463-16
). Since that paper, new guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Society for Health Care Epidemiology have been published (L. C. McDonald, D. N. Gerding, S. Johnson, J. S. Bakken, K. C. Carroll, et al., Clin Infect Dis 66:987–994, 2018,
https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy149
) and health care systems have begun to explore screening asymptomatic patients for
C. difficile
colonization. The theory behind screening selected patient populations for
C. difficile
colonization is that these patients represent a substantial reservoir of the bacteria and can transfer the bacteria to other patients. Hospital administrators are taking note of institutional CDI rates because they are publicly reported. They have become an important metric impacting hospital safety ratings and value-based purchasing, and hospitals may have millions of dollars of reimbursement at risk. In this Point-Counterpoint, Cliff McDonald of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discusses the value of asymptomatic
C. difficile
screening, while Dan Diekema of the University of Iowa discusses why caution should be used.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Point-Counterpoint: Active Surveillance for Carriers of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile Should Be Performed To Guide Prevention Efforts
- Creators
- L Clifford McDonald - Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDaniel J Diekema - Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Vol.56(8), e00782-18
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology; 1752 N St., N.W., Washington, DC
- DOI
- 10.1128/JCM.00782-18
- PMID
- 29769275
- PMCID
- PMC6062805
- ISSN
- 0095-1137
- eISSN
- 1098-660X
- Alternative title
- Point-Counterpoint
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2018
- Academic Unit
- Infectious Diseases; Pathology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9983986375502771
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