Cui Y, Dong D, Zhang L, et al. - In order to provide strategies for efficient C. difficile infection (CDI) and C. difficile colonization (CDC) prevention and control, researchers performed a prospective study of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a large-scale tertiary hospital in China, for determining the prevalence, molecular epidemiological characteristics, and risk factors for CDI and CDC among them. They collected stool samples and cultured these anaerobically for C. difficile detection. Inclusion of 800 patients was done in this study; of these, 33 (4.12%) and 25 (3.12%) had CDI and CDC, respectively. These relatively high prevalences of CDC and CDI in this work emphasize the value of routine screening for acquisition of C. difficile. CDI was associated with fever, metabolic disorder, and treatment with fluoroquinolone or combined antibiotics. Characteristics of CDC patients comprised prolonged hospital stay, increased number of comorbidities, respiratory diseases, and treatment with vancomycin. Notably, both groups had treatment with metronidazole as a protective factor. The identification of 18 sequence types (STs) was done. In the CDI group, predominantly toxin A and toxin B positive (A + B+) comprised the isolated strains and genotype ST2 was the epidemic clone. In the CDC group, A + B+ were the dominant strains and ST81 was the epidemic clone.