A large outbreak of Clostridium difficile‐associated disease with an unexpected proportion of deaths and colectomies at a teaching hospital following increased Fluoroquinolone use

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Fluoroquinolones have not been frequently implicated as a cause of Clostridium difficile outbreaks. Nosocornial C. difficile infections increased from 2.7 to 6.8 cases per 1,000 discharges (P < .001). During the first 2 years of the outbreak, there were 253 nosocomial C difficile infections; of these, 26 resulted in colectomy and 18 resulted in death. We conducted an investigation of a large C. difficile outbreak in our hospital to identify risk factors and characterize the outbreak.