cover story Horizontal Healthcare Hygienic Practices Can Mitigate Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection
cover story Horizontal Healthcare Hygienic Practices Can Mitigate Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection
By Kelly M . Pyrek
Following a schematic of horizontal healthcare hygienic practices that pairs environmental hygiene with hand hygiene , aided by proper cleaning and the use of appropriate liquid chemical disinfection can fight hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile infection ( HO-CDI ), say researchers who have recently published a paper outlining this simple yet effective strategy ( Carling , et al . 2023 ).
The authors remind us that despite attempts to use dilute bleach during CDI outbreaks , “ efforts to effectively mitigate environmental transmission of Clostridiodes difficile ( CD ) spores in endemic settings has been ineffective ,” according to studies . What does work , the researchers say , are new insights into the healthcare epidemiology of HO-CDI and updated approaches to mitigating environmental transmission .
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) showed that CDI had been decreasing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic , but it , along with other healthcare-associated infections , has subsequently escalated .
As Carling , et al . ( 2023 ) explain , “ In the United States , CDI rates had been showing a gradual decrease during the decade prior to the COVID pandemic , primarily due to decreases in HO-CDI . Several factors would appear to have contributed to the declining incidence including antimicrobial stewardship , better diagnostic stewardship , and
16 october 2023 • www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com