Letter: Community-Acquired Clostridium difficile Infection, Queensland, Australia

In Queensland, Australia, a steady increase in community-acquired (CA) Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) during 2003–2012 could not be explained by patients’ demographic characteristics or environmental factors (1). Several risk factors have been implicated in the increased rates of CA-CDI, primarily exposure to antimicrobial drugs, gastric acid–suppression drugs, and corticosteroids (2). Given the recent rise in prescription of corticosteroids and proton pump inhibitors in Australia, we hypothesized that the observed increase in CA-CDI was associated with increased drug prescriptions.