AUTHOR=Vázquez-Cuesta Silvia , Olmedo María , Reigadas Elena , Alcalá Luis , Marín Mercedes , Muñoz Patricia , Bouza Emilio 

TITLE=Clostridioides difficile infection epidemiology and clinical characteristics in COVID-19 pandemic

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.953724

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.953724

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Information on Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in patients with COVID-19 is scarce and points to an overall decrease of episodes during the pandemic. This situation results paradoxical, as COVID-19 patients had long periods of hospital stay and high use of antibiotics.
We conducted a retrospective study from January 1st 2019 to December 31st 2020 comparing the incidence of hospital-acquired episodes of CDI (HA-CDI) among patients with and without COVID-19 admitted to our institution. 
During the study period, we had 82,710 admissions of non-COVID-19 cases and 6,763 of COVID-19 patients. We had 68 episodes of HA-CDI in COVID-19 patients (14.75/10,000 days) and 397 among patients with conditions other than COVID-19 (7.79/10,000 days).
Comparison of HA-CDI in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients indicate it occurs more frequently, more severely, and with higher recurrence among patients with COVID-19.