The Need for European Surveillance of CDI

Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium, the epidemiology of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) has continued to challenge. Changes in clinical presentation, severity of disease, descriptions of new risk factors and the occurrence of outbreaks all emphasised the importance of early diagnosis and standardised surveillance systems. However, a lack of consensus on case definitions, clinical guidelines and optimal laboratory diagnostics across Europe has led to the underestimation of CDI and impeded comparison between countries. These inconsistencies have prevented the true burden of disease from being appreciated.Acceptance that a multi-country CDI surveillance program and optimised diagnostic strategies are required has built the foundations for a more robust, unified surveillance. The concerted efforts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) CDI networks led to the development of the European surveillance protocol and an over-arching long-term CDI surveillance strategy for 2014-2020, which has been followed by the development of surveillance systems in at least 20 European countries. However, surveillance activities in individual countries have slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic as resources were diverted to the global health crisis. A renewed and strengthened focus on CDI surveillance and prevention is therefore urgently needed post COVID-19.

Keywords: Capacity building; Collaborative effort; Epidemiology; Standardisation; Surveillance.