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Updated: Sep 12, 2025

Culturing and Maintaining Clostridium difficile in an Anaerobic Environment
Published on: September 14, 2013
Infection Prevention Approaches for Clostridioides difficile
Jesse Vance1, Nicholas A Turner1
1Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
Abstract:
Clostridioides difficile prevention is challenging as spores are highly resilient and transmission sources diverse. Hand hygiene, contact precautions, and environmental decontamination are fundamental infection prevention strategies. Antimicrobial stewardship is highly effective at reducing C difficile risk at both the individual and institutional level. Supplemental control measures such as no-touch disinfection technologies and screening/isolation of carriers are generally reserved for situations in which fundamental control measures prove insufficient. Reducing host vulnerability through immunization, prophylactic antibiotics directed against C difficile, or products that protect/augment the microbiome may offer promise in the future.
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