Isolation and Identification of Clostridium difficile from Antibiotic- Associated Diarrhea and Colitis in Iraqi children, using API20A Anaerobic system.

Abstract

Clostridium difficile were isolated by 51 (21.25%) from a total of 240 stool sample collected from children having diarrhea and colitis at  ages from after   birth to 15 years old from Baghdad  hospitals, who were under treatment with broad spectrum antibiotics, and  Sample were taken during the period of first of  June 2013  till the end of april 2014. Also 80 stool samples were collected from healthy ,non diarrhea children  as controls.   Morphological    and  API 20A tests  were used  for the  identification  of   this  bacterium to evaluate the performance of the API 20A anaerobe system  in definitively identifying strains of C. difficile.   . This  study  shows  that  females  were  more infected than males .Overall positivity was (21.25%)in this study group compared to controls (P<0.05). The isolation percent from  age <5years  was (18.75%) , while it in age>5years was( 2. 5 %) . It was found that this percent  decreased  with age get  older.