A Regional Outbreak of Clostridium difficile PCR-Ribotype 027 Infections ă in Southeastern France from a Single Long-Term Care Facility

International audienceOBJECTIVE. To describe and analyze a large outbreak of Clostridium ă difficile 027 (CD-027) infections. ă METHODS. Confirmed CD-027 cases were defined as CD infection plus ă real-time polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) positive for CD-027. ă Clinical and microbiological data on patients with CD-027 infection were ă collected from January 2013 to December 2015 in the ă Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region (southeastern France). ă RESULTS. In total, 19 healthcare facilities reported 144 CD-027 ă infections (112 confirmed and 32 probable CD-027 infections) during a ă 22-month period outbreak. Although the incidence rate per 10,000 bed ă days was lower in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) than in acute care ă facilities (0.05 vs 0.14; P < .001), cases occurred mainly in LTCFs, one ă of which was the probable source of this outbreak. After centralization ă of CD testing, the rate of confirmed CD-027 cases from LTCFs or ă residential-care homes increased significantly (69% vs 92%; P < .001). ă Regarding confirmed CD-027 patients, the sex ratio and the median age ă were 0.53 and 84.2 years, respectively. The 30-day crude mortality rate ă was 31%. Most patients (96%) had received antibiotics within 3 months ă prior to the CD colitis diagnosis. During the study period, the rate of ă patients with CD-027 (compared with all patients tested in the ă point-of-care laboratories) decreased significantly (P = .03). ă CONCLUSIONS. A large CD-027 outbreak occurred in southeastern France as ă a consequence of an initial cluster of cases in a single LTCF. ă Successful interventions included rapid isolation and testing of ă residents with potentially infectious diarrhea and cohorting of case ă patients in a specialized infectious diseases ward to optimize ă management