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Environmental Surfaces, Clinician Hands Play Role in C. Difficile Transmission in ICU

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on April 10, 2025.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 10, 2025 -- Environmental surfaces and health care personnel (HCP) hands play an important role in Clostridioides difficile transmission within health care facilities, according to a study published online April 4 in JAMA Network Open.

Lindsay T. Keegan, Ph.D., from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues conducted a 13-week, longitudinal observational study in two intensive care units (ICUs) with daily culture-based sampling of patient body sites, room environmental surfaces, HCP hands, and shared environmental surfaces in 2018.

Overall, 177 patients of 278 unique ICU admissions consented to body site sampling and were sampled. Environmental surfaces and HCP hands were also sampled daily for all occupied rooms, resulting in 7,000 total samples. The researchers found that nearly 8 percent of all patients had C. difficile linked to other admissions and 57 percent of transmission clusters bridged nonoverlapping patient stays. A 3.6-fold higher C. difficile movement was identified by including environmental surfaces and HCP hands compared with patient sampling alone, highlighting environmental surfaces as reservoirs.

"Our observations provide novel insights into transmission dynamics that can inform infection control practices by highlighting the critical importance of hand hygiene, even when C. difficile infection is not suspected," the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to bioMerieux.

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

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Posted April 2025

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