A new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases examined Clostridium difficile transmission patterns among pediatric patients.
Researchers performed whole genome sequencing on C. diff isolates collected from children diagnosed with C. diff between December 2012 and December 2013 at a single academic medical center. In all, they studied 104 genetically distinct isolates collected from 131 C. diff infections in 107 children.
Researchers compared genome sequences of isolates from C. diff infections diagnosed at eight weeks or more after the study initiation to all study isolate genome sequences.
They found that of 84 incident C. diff infections occurring at eight weeks or more after study initiation, only 11.9 percent were caused by a strain with genotype similar to another cohort C. diff infection isolate.
Researchers also found transmission events among different classes of C. diff infections — hospital-onset healthcare facility-associated, community-onset healthcare facility-associated, indeterminate, community-associated and recurrent — were uncommon. Transmission events among community-associated and healthcare facility-associated C. diff infections were also found to be infrequent.