TY - JOUR AU - Ho, Jeffery AU - Dai, Rudin Z.W. AU - Kwong, Thomas N.Y. AU - Wang, Xiansong AU - Zhang, Lin AU - Ip, Margaret AU - Chan, Raphael AU - Hawkey, Peter M.K. AU - Lam, Kelvin L.Y. AU - Wong, Martin C.S. AU - Tse, Gary AU - Chan, Matthew T.V. AU - Chan, Francis K.L. AU - Yu, Jun AU - Ng, Siew AU - Lee, Nelson AU - Wu, Justin C.Y. AU - Sung, Joseph J.Y. AU - Wu, William K.K. AU - Wong, Sunny T1 - Disease Burden of Clostridium difficile Infections in Adults, Hong Kong, China, 2006–2014 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2017 VL - 23 IS - 10 SP - 1671 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Cross-sectional studies suggest an increasing trend in incidence and relatively low recurrence rates of Clostridium difficile infections in Asia than in Europe and North America. The temporal trend of C. difficile infection in Asia is not completely understood. We conducted a territory-wide population-based observational study to investigate the burden and clinical outcomes in Hong Kong, China, over a 9-year period. A total of 15,753 cases were identified, including 14,402 (91.4%) healthcare-associated cases and 817 (5.1%) community-associated cases. After adjustment for diagnostic test, we found that incidence increased from 15.41 cases/100,000 persons in 2006 to 36.31 cases/100,000 persons in 2014, an annual increase of 26%. This increase was associated with elderly patients, for whom incidence increased 3-fold over the period. Recurrence at 60 days increased from 5.7% in 2006 to 9.1% in 2014 (p<0.001). Our data suggest the need for further surveillance, especially in Asia, which contains ≈60% of the world’s population. KW - Clostridium difficile KW - bacteria KW - infections KW - pseudomembranous colitis KW - surveillance KW - epidemiology KW - disease burden KW - Hong Kong KW - China KW - enteric infections DO - 10.3201/eid2310.170797 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/10/17-0797_article ER - End of Reference