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Clostridium difficile -Associated Disease in Long-Term Care Facilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2016

David W. Bentley
David W. Bentley*
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease and Infection Control Units, Monroe Community Hospital and the Infectious Diseases Unit and Department of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York
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Extract

Clostridium difficile is a major cause of gastrointestinal infections. In 1978, Bartlett and colleagues identified C difficile and its toxin as the cause of the antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis (PMC). Within a few years, there was the development of a diagnostic assay, a description of a clinical and pathological spectrum of the disease, a definition of risk factors and characterization of the two toxins that account for the pathological event. Additional information regarding the microbiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment has rapidly developed. These features are beyond the scope of this report, and the reader is referred to several recent reviews.

Type
Special Sections
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 11 , Issue 8 , August 1990 , pp. 434 - 438
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1990

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