NR 503 Week 3: Current Event

NR 503 Week 3: Current Event

Clostridium difficile or C.diff has been found to be the second leading cause of death among children under the age of 5 with 70% of all cases to be pediatrics in the country of Georgia. C.diff is a Gram-positive spore-forming bacillus and it is antibiotic-associated diarrhea. The symptoms can very but diarrhea is the most common. It is diagnosed by testing the patient’s stool using stool cultures, glutamate dehydrogenase enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay (Migriuli et al., 2018) .

The purpose of this study was to analyze the frequency of C.diff in hospitalized pediatric patients in the country of Georgia. The main objective for this study was to “test and pilot the real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction diagnostic systems for rapid and simultaneous identification of number of pathogens” (Migriuli et al., 2018, p. 172). Other objectives were to decrease the number of c.diff infection rates, improving quality in testing methods, and improving quality of life.

A cross-sectional study was performed on 211 stool samples from 192 pediatric patients in the time frame of May 2016 to September 2017. The pediatric patient’s age ranged from 0 to 17 with a median age of 3.5 years. The patient sample consisted of 109 (56.7%) males and 83 (43.3%) females. Of the 211 stool samples, 21 or 10% came back positive for c.diff. C.diff and other pathogens have increased in this country, especially in pediatrics. The study found a prevalence of C.diff in their study to reach 10% for their country.

I believe an “average” reader will be able to comprehend the message and understand the high rates of C.diff in that area and in the pediatric population. I believe the article and study provided the reader with elaborate information on what C.diff is, how it is contracted, diagnostic testing and treatments, and so forth. I believe it will provide more thinking for sure. Personally, I was unaware of how prevalent C.diff was in that area and I have learned a thing or two. I believe the article done a great job at delivering vital information on their topic and aim of study.

Reference

Migriauli, I., Meunargia, V., Chkhaidze, I., Sabakhtarishvili, G., Gujabidze, K., Khokrishvili, G., Janashia, J., Kamkamidze, G. (2018). Epidemiology of clostridium difficile infection in hospitalized pediatric patients in georgia. Georgian Medical News, 2(275), 172-174.