Urgent action needed to address Clostridium difficile infections in Europe

Urgent action is needed to address the current issues relating to the management of health care-acquired infections (HAIs) and Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), experts agreed at an event yesterday at the European Parliament.

Experts from across Europe came together with members of European Parliament to discuss ways to improve current gaps in diagnosis, treatment, control and surveillance. It followed the launch of the CDI in Europe report in April 2013, which was supported by multiple European stakeholders and quoted in the European Parliament Resolution on Patient Safety and HAI. The Resolution calls on member states and the European Union to do more to address HAIs like CDI. CDI is one of the top ten HAIs in European hospitals and has surpassed MRSA as a leading cause of healthcare-acquired infection in several European countries.

This meeting coincides with The Lancet Infectious Diseases publication of EUCLID, the European, multicenter, prospective bi-annual point prevalence study of Clostridium difficile Infection in hospitalized patients with diarrhea, the largest ever prevalence study of CDI across Europe. This study included data from 482 hospitals across 20 European countries; it found there are an estimated 40,000 missed cases of CDI each year. With around 8,000 hospitals in the EU, the true European total of missed CDI cases is likely to be significantly higher.