Association of ciprofloxacin prescriptions to outpatients to Clostridium difficile infections

S Borgmann; T Jakobiak; H Gruber; M Reil; H Schröder; M Kist; U Sagel

doi:10.2807/ese.15.05.19479-en

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Association of ciprofloxacin prescriptions to outpatients to Clostridium difficile infections
S Borgmann¹ , T Jakobiak¹ , H Gruber¹ , M Reil¹ , H Schröder² , M Kist³ , U Sagel⁴
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Affiliations: ¹ Synlab Medical Care Service, Medical Care Centre Weiden, Weiden, Germany ² Wissenschaftliches Institut der Allgemeinen Ortskrankenkasse AOK (WidO, Research Institute of the AOK health ³ Department of Microbiology and Hygiene, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany ⁴ Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Human Medicine, Vienna, Austria

Correspondence:
S Borgmann
synlab gmx.de
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Citation style for this article: Borgmann S, Jakobiak T, Gruber H, Reil M, Schröder H, Kist M, Sagel U. Association of ciprofloxacin prescriptions to outpatients to Clostridium difficile infections. Euro Surveill. 2010;15(5):pii=19479. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.15.05.19479-en Received: 25 Jan 2010

Abstract

To study if antibiotic treatment of outpatients had triggered Clostridium difficile infections (CDI), prescription numbers were compared with CDI-affected patient numbers. A strong correlation was observed for ciprofloxacin (R=0.917), suggesting that increased use of ciprofloxacin by outpatients contributed to increased numbers of CDI. These findings deserve further investigation as they may have an impact on future decisions regarding antibiotic prescribing.