Clostridium difficile is a signicant cause of morbidity and mortality
among hospitalized patients, and the incidence of C. difficile infection
(CDI) has dramatically increased due to frequent usage of broadspectrum antibiotics in these patients. The wide variation in the
spectrum of clinical manifestations of CDI makes the diagnosis
difcult. Further, the wide range of variability in the sensitivity and
specicity of the various diagnostic methods and the high cost of these
methods add to the difculty. It is a spore-forming gram-positive
anaerobic organism. Until the 1970s, it was considered as a
microorganism that is rarely present in normal intestinal microbiota.
But it was not until 1978 that C. difcile was identied as a cause of
[1]
pseudomembranous colitis . Since then, C. difcile has been
recognized as a common cause of antibiotic associated diarrhoea and
nosocomial diarrhoea. The incidence of C. difcile infection (CDI)
varies from place to place. In India, it is known to infect up to 25 % of
[2] people taking antibiotics