A study of the genetic diversity of Clostridium difficile has surprised researchers and shed new light on the way this pathogen may be transmitted between patients, according to an article on the Pharmacy Practice News website.

“Unexpectedly few cases appear to be acquired from direct ward-based contact with other symptomatic cases,” study author David Eyre, MB, ChB, a clinical researcher at the University of Oxford, England, said in the article. “These have previously been thought to be the main source of infections, and the focus of prevention efforts.”

The traditional view of C. difficile transmission is that, in hospital settings, the disease spreads through spores released from an infected patient’s diarrhea. Infection prevention efforts frequently focus on sterilization, using sporicides like sodium hypochlorite to disinfect hospital wards, the article said.

“The findings are striking in that we usually talk about transmission from symptomatic patients in hospitals,” Curtis J. Donskey, MD, professor at Case Western Reserve University and an infectious disease physician at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center in Ohio, said in the article.

“This study clearly suggests that there are additional sources of C. difficile acquisition.” Donskey was not involved with the study. 

Read the article.