Kill this spore!

This month’s issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology has an interesting article from the University of Michigan group, demonstrating that having a prior room occupant with C. difficile associated disease (CDAD) is a risk factor for CDAD. Spores are hard to kill, and survive for months in the hospital environment. Meanwhile, environmental cleaning practices are highly variable….but clearly not good enough in most hospitals to eradicate C. difficile spores from the environment during terminal room cleaning. I have nothing to add to the excellent commentary on the article by David Weber and Bill Rutala. The future of environmental cleaning likely resides in touchless technologies like hydrogen peroxide vapor/mist and UV light.

Image: Transmission EM of C. difficile spore, from the Journal of Bacteriology.