Assessing the effect of patient screening and isolation on curtailing Clostridium difficile infection in hospital settings.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patient screening at the time of hospital admission is not recommended as a routine practice, but may be an important strategy for containment of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in hospital settings. We sought to investigate the effect of patient screening in the presence of asymptomatic carriers and in the context of imperfect patient isolation.

Methods

We developed and parameterized a stochastic simulation model for the transmission dynamics of CDI in a hospital ward.

Results

We found that the transmission of CDI in the hospital, either through asymptomatic carriers or as a results of ineffective implementation of infection control practices, at the time of hospital admission. The results show that, for a sufficiently high reproduction number of CDI

SUBMITTER: Maghdoori S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5455129 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature