Maternal Transmission of Symptomatic Clostridioides difficile Infection to Two Premature Neonates.

BACKGROUND

Clostridioides difficile infections (CDI) in neonates are challenging to diagnose due to high asymptomatic gut colonization rates with C. difficile in newborns and the difficulty of differentiating colonization and infection.

OBJECTIVE

We describe a case of a severe CDI with a complicated course in a 48-year-old mother who had prior hospitalization and antibiotic treatment. She gave birth to a triplet at a gestational age of 31 weeks and transmitted toxin-producing C. difficile belonging to polymerase chain reaction ribotype 002 onto 3 newborns of which 2 developed diarrhea which responded well to anti-CDI treatment.

CONCLUSION

Testing for CDI in neonates should be considered if the mother developed CDI during the peripartum period.