Impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on risk of health care-associated Clostridium difficile infection

Enrico Bentivegna; Giuliano Alessio; Valerio Spuntarelli; Michelangelo Luciani; Iolanda Santino; Maurizio Simmaco; Paolo Martelletti

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.09.010

Impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on risk of health care-associated Clostridium difficile infection

Am J Infect Control. 2021 May;49(5):640-642. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.09.010. Epub 2020 Oct 5.

Authors

Enrico Bentivegna¹, Giuliano Alessio², Valerio Spuntarelli³, Michelangelo Luciani⁴, Iolanda Santino⁵, Maurizio Simmaco⁶, Paolo Martelletti⁷

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine Unit, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: enrico.bentivegna@uniroma1.it.
² Hospital Direction and Clinical Departments, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
³ Emergency Medicine CoViD-19 Unit, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁴ Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine Unit, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁵ Hospital Direction and Clinical Departments, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy; Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁶ Hospital Direction and Clinical Departments, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy; Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Sensory Organs, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
⁷ Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine Unit, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy; Emergency Medicine CoViD-19 Unit, Sant'Andrea University Hospital and "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy; Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Sensory Organs, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Clostridium difficile is the most common pathogen between health care-associated infections and its incidence has increased during the last years. lack of enough evidence about effective hygiene interventions to prevent this disease. Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic, several strategies to reduce microorganism spread were adopted in hospital setting. The objective of this study was to establish whether such strategies can reduce health care associated C difficile infection (HA-CDI) incidence. We found that, during the pandemic (2020) HA-CDI incidence was significantly lower with respect to the previous years. This work demonstrates that maintaining this level of attention regarding control activities related to prevention of microorganism transmission significantly reduce HA-CDI and related expenses in terms of health costs and human lives.

Keywords: Infections control; Nosocomial infections; Personal-protective equipements; SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / epidemiology
COVID-19 / prevention & control*
Clostridioides difficile / isolation & purification*
Clostridium Infections / diagnosis*
Clostridium Infections / epidemiology
Cross Infection / epidemiology
Cross Infection / prevention & control*
Delivery of Health Care
Guideline Adherence*
Humans
Incidence
Italy / epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2