Standardised surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection in European acute care hospitals: a pilot study, 2013

S.M. van Dorp (1) , P. Kinross (2) , P. Gastmeier (3) , M. Behnke (3) , A Kola (3) , M Delmée (4) , A Pavelkovich (5) , S Mentula (6) , F. Barbut (7, 8) , A Hajdu (9) , A Ingebretsen (10) , H. Pituch (11) , I.S. Macovei (12) , M. Jovanovic (13) , C Wiuff (14) , D Schmid (15) , K.E. Olsen (16) , M.H. Wilcox (17, 18) , C. Suetens (2) , E.J. Kuijper (1)

1 Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University
2 ECDC - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [Stockholm, Sweden]
3 Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Charité - University Hospital [Berlin]
4 UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain
5 Tallinn University
6 National Institute for Health and Welfare [Helsinki]
7 CHU Saint-Antoine [AP-HP]
8 National reference laboratory for clostridium difficile
9 OEK - National Center for Epidemiology - Országos Epidemiológiai Központ [Budapest]
10 Oslo University Hospital [Oslo]
11 Medical University of Warsaw - Poland
12 Cantacuzino Institute [Romania]
13 KCS - Clinical Center of Serbia
14 Health Protection Scotland
15 Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES)
16 Statens Serum Institut [Copenhagen]
17 Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
18 University of Leeds

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains poorly controlled in many European countries, of which several have not yet implemented national CDI surveillance. In 2013, experts from the European CDI Surveillance Network project and from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control developed a protocol with three options of CDI surveillance for acute care hospitals: a 'minimal' option (aggregated hospital data), a 'light' option (including patient data for CDI cases) and an 'enhanced' option (including microbio-logical data on the first 10 CDI episodes per hospital). A total of 37 hospitals in 14 European countries tested these options for a three-month period (between 13 May and 1 November 2013). All 37 hospitals successfully completed the minimal surveillance option (for 1,152 patients). Clinical data were submitted for 94% (1,078/1,152) of the patients in the light option; information on CDI origin and outcome was complete for 94% (1,016/1,078) and 98% (294/300) of the patients in the light and enhanced options, respectively. The workload of the options was 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 person-days per 10,000 hospital discharges, respectively. Enhanced surveillance was tested and was successful in 32 of the hospitals, showing that C. difficile PCR ribotype 027 was predominant (30% (79/267)). This study showed that standardised multicountry surveillance, with the option of integrating clinical and molecular data, is a feasible strategy for monitoring CDI in Europe.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie; Maladies infectieuses

S.M. van Dorp, P. Kinross, P. Gastmeier, M. Behnke, A Kola, et al.. Standardised surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection in European acute care hospitals: a pilot study, 2013. Eurosurveillance, 2016, 21 (29), pp.24-36. ⟨10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.29.30293⟩. ⟨hal-01360004⟩