Cancer patients who asymptomatically carried Clostridioides difficile may drive the majority of new cases within inpatient cancer units, according to a study published Oct. 1 in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Researchers from Raleigh-based North Carolina State University and St. Louis-based Washington University School of Medicine studied two leukemia and hematopoietic cell transplant units over six months to assess how C. diff enters and spreads across cancer units.
Here are four notes from the study:
- The team tested every patient on the units, not just those showing signs of illness, and used staff room assignments to build a model of how the bacteria could move between patients.
- Even with weekly screening, testing only detected 23% of new colonizations.
- About 51% of new colonizations came from patients who carried the bacteria at admission, with 87% of those patients displaying no symptoms.
The other 49% of cases resulted from spread within the units, and patients without symptoms accounted for 92% of those cases. - Patients with active infections rarely spread the bacteria to others, a sign that existing precautions for symptomatic patients are effective, the researchers concluded.
Read the full study here.
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