Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) have emerged as a major cause of healthcare associated disease, and recent epidemiological evidence also suggests an important role in community-acquired diarrhea. This increase is associated with specific types, especially PCR ribotypes 027 and 078, which are sometimes referred to as "hypervirulent". Over the past years major advances have been made in ou...

Increasing rates of Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD) have been reported from North America since 2003. This increase is associated with the emergence and spread of a particular strain of C. difficile characterised as PCR ribotype 027 or pulsotype NAP1. This epidemic strain produces toxins A and B and the binary toxin, is resistant to erythromycin and the newer fluoroquinolones, a...

In the past decade, the epidemiology and treatment of Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD) have significantly changed. C. difficile remains the most important cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea and is increasingly important as a community pathogen. The strains of C. difficile with hypervirulent BI-NAP1-027 and nonBI-NAP1-027 have been reported for after the use of nearly all sy...

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic Gram-positive spore-forming gut pathogen that causes antibiotic-associated diarrhea worldwide. A small number of C. difficile strains express the binary toxin (CDT), which is generally found in C. difficile 027 (ST1) and/or 078 (ST11) in clinic. However, we isolated a binary toxin-positive non-027, non-078 C. difficile LC693 that is associated wi...

gyrA Mutations in Fluoroquinolone-resistant Clostridium difficile PCR-027 To the Editor: Clostridium diffi-cile is the most common cause of bacterial diarrhea in hospitalized patients (1). Antimicrobial drug therapy is the most important risk factor associated with the acquistion of C. difficile, and several antimicrobial agents including clindamycin, amoxicillin, and cepha-lo-sporins have been...

UNLABELLED Clostridium difficile is a leading cause of nosocomial infections worldwide and has become an urgent public health threat requiring immediate attention. Epidemic lineages of the BI/NAP1/027 strain type have emerged and spread through health care systems across the globe over the past decade. Limiting person-to-person transmission and eradicating C. difficile, especially the BI/NAP1/0...

We determined the PCR ribotypes and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of 508 toxigenic Clostridium difficile isolates collected between 2011 and 2013 from 32 U.S. hospitals. Of the 29 PCR ribotypes identified, the 027 strain type was the most common (28.1%), although the rates varied by geographic region. Ribotype 014/020 isolates appear to be emerging. Clindamycin and moxifloxacin resistan...

Yun Qing 1, Yidong Lou 1,*, Yang Liu 1,*, Xiaolei Dai 1 and Yi Cai 2 1 GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China; [email protected] (Y.Q.); [email protected] (X.D.) 2 CHINA R&D ACADEMY OF MACHINERY EQUIPMENT, Beijing 100089, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (Y.L.); [email protected] (Y.L.); Tel.: +86-027-6877-8595 (Y.L.); +86-027-6877-7...

We compared multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) and macrorestriction endonuclease analysis using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to determine their utility to identify clusters of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) among 91 isolates of PCR ribotype 027 (NAP1, for North American pulsed-field type 1) from nine hospitals (and 10 general practitioners associated with...

Clostridium difficile is responsible for a wide spectrum of infection from asymptomatic carriage to severe, relapsing colitis. Since 2003, C. difficile infections have increased with a higher morbidity and mortality due to the emergence of epidemic and hypervirulent C. difficile strains such as those of the epidemic lineage 027/BI/NAP1. To decipher the hypervirulence and epidemicity of 027 stra...