Investigation of community carriage rates of Clostridium difficile and Hungatella hathewayi in healthy volunteers from four regions of England

S E Manzoor; C A M McNulty; D Nakiboneka-Ssenabulya; D M Lecky; K J Hardy; P M Hawkey

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2017.05.014

Investigation of community carriage rates of Clostridium difficile and Hungatella hathewayi in healthy volunteers from four regions of England

J Hosp Infect. 2017 Oct;97(2):153-155. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2017.05.014. Epub 2017 May 23.

Authors

S E Manzoor¹, C A M McNulty², D Nakiboneka-Ssenabulya², D M Lecky², K J Hardy³, P M Hawkey³

Affiliations

¹ Public Health Laboratory Birmingham, Heart of England Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK. Electronic address: susan.manzoor@heartofengland.nhs.uk.
² Primary Care Unit, Public Health England, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Gloucester, UK.
³ Public Health Laboratory Birmingham, Heart of England Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK; Institute of Microbiology and Infection, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

PMID: 28549779
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2017.05.014

Abstract

Faecal samples from 1365 healthy asymptomatic volunteers from four regions in England were screened for the presence of Clostridium difficile between December 2013 and July 2014. The carriage rate of C. difficile in healthy patients was 0.5%, which is lower than reported previously. This study demonstrates that the true community reservoir of C. difficile in the healthy UK population is very low and is, therefore, unlikely to be a reservoir for infections diagnosed in the hospital setting.

Keywords: Clostridium difficile; Community carriage; Hungatella hathewayi.

MeSH terms

Adult
Carrier State / microbiology*
Clostridioides difficile / isolation & purification
Clostridium / isolation & purification*
Clostridium Infections / diagnosis
Clostridium Infections / epidemiology*
England / epidemiology
Feces / microbiology*
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Polymerase Chain Reaction
State Medicine
Young Adult