Health care associated Clostridioidesdifficile infection and colonization in patients admitted at tertiary care hospital Pakistan Authors Abeera Ahmed Department of Pathology, Combined Military Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan Aamer Ikram Department of Microbiology, National Institute of Health, Islamabad, Pakistan Nargis Sabir Department of Pathology, Combined Military Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan Gohar Zaman Department of Microbiology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan Adeel Gardezi Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan Luqman Satti PNS Shifa, Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.0461 Abstract Objective: To evaluate the epidemiology of clostridioides difficile infections and colonisation in a tertiary-care setting. Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from June 1, 2017, to October 31, 2019, and comprised adult patients admitted in high-risk units of the hospital for any disease experiencing watery stools after 48 hours of hospital admission and passing more than 3 stools per day with no other recognised aetiology. Stool samples of the participants, diagnosed with antibiotic associated diarrhoea, were submitted forglutamate dehydrogenase antigen assay and clostridioides toxin A/B assay detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and clostridioides difficile toxin gene detection by polymerase chain reaction. Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea was diagnosed by a positive toxin assay or polymerase chain reaction. Data was analysed using SPSS25. Results: Of the 715 subjects, 322(45%) were males and 393(55%) were females. The overall mean age was 56.64±8.57 years, and 488(68.3%) were aged <60 years, while 227(31.7%) were aged >60 years. The incidence of clostridioides difficile-associated diarrhoea was found in 10(1.4%) patients and was highest in oncology unit 3(4.3%). No positive case was detected from the high dependency unit and the surgical ward. All the10(1.4%) positive cases were on >2 antibiotics with a combination of oral vancomycin and intravenous metronidazole. Mortality rate was significantly higher in the positive cases compared to those with clostridioides difficile colonisation (p<0.05). Conclusion: The incidence of clostridioides difficile-associated diarrhoea was found to be low. Continues... Downloads Full Text Article Published 2022-04-05 How to Cite Ahmed, A., Aamer Ikram, Nargis Sabir, Gohar Zaman, Adeel Gardezi, & Luqman Satti. (2022). Health care associated Clostridioidesdifficile infection and colonization in patients admitted at tertiary care hospital Pakistan. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 72(4), 610–615. https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.0461 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 72 No. 4 (2022): APRIL Section Original Article