Aerosolized hydrogen peroxide (aHP) can significantly reduce Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and is an effective disinfection system, suggests a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
C. difficile is the most common cause of healthcare-associated infection and increasingly occurs outside acute care hospitals. CDI symptoms can range from mild diarrhea to life-threatening colitis and sepsis, sometimes requiring urgent colon removal.
The CDC has reported that, in the United States, 223,900 people required hospitalization for CDI and at least 12,800 died in 2017. Because of its large toll, CDI is grouped with antimicrobial-resistant "threat" organisms that often accompany it. People older than age 65 are at particular risk for disease, and at least 20% of patients experience recurrence.
In healthcare facilities, C. difficile is transmitted by bacterial spores that readily contaminate surfaces in patients' rooms, from handrails to bedside tables to light switches and knobs. The spores are resistant to disinfectants, and rooms are often cleaned with bleach solutions. But those bleach fumes are irritating and may cause bronchospasm for patients with asthma or COPD, and so alternative cleaning agents are needed.
In a retrospective study of an acute-care facility in Philadelphia, researchers compared the incidence of healthcare-associated CDI (HA-CDI) at the facility before and after adding aHP to other infection control practices.
