Distribution of Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 027 in British hospitals

An outbreak of Clostridium difficile infection in Stoke Mandeville hospital in south-east England [1] in 2004/2005 was primarily due to a new and possibly more virulent strain known in the United Kingdom (UK) as PCR ribotype 027. Coinciding with this outbreak, a surveillance programme of C. difficile isolates from symptomatic patients in England with additional results of outbreak investigation requests to the Anaerobe Reference Laboratory (ARL) in Cardiff has established the true extent of its spread throughout British hospitals.