Figure 4
The effects of screening on Clostridium difficile in the simulated hospital. The ratio of patients that are colonized with C. difficile when discharged relative to on admission (left) are shown along with the associated incidence in symptomatic CDI per 1000 hospital bed days (right). Even highly sensitive screening (Y axis) can do little to impact either of these epidemiological outcomes. However, time to colonization (X axis), a component of the pathogen’s life course for which data is absent, is highly influential in its epidemiology.