Prevalence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea among hospitalized Jordanian patients

ABSTRACT

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