Objectives: Increased incidence of Clostridium difficile infection and deaths from US hospitals has occurred from 1996 to 2005.
Methods: We examined C. difficile-related mortality rates in Texas and compared results with national trends.
Results: In Texas, there were 1004C. difficile-related deaths from 1999 to 2005 (586 (58%) attributed as the underlying cause and 418 (42%) attributed as a contributing cause). In 1999, 50 deaths were attributed as the underlying or contributing cause (0.2 per 100,000 population) versus 274 deaths in 2005 (1.2 per 100,000 population); corresponding to a 6-fold increase. There were approximately 4.5 times more hospital in-patient C. difficile-related deaths in 2005 (0.94 per 100,000) versus 1999 (0.21 per 100,000), and approximately 7 times more deaths in nursing homes in 2005 (0.14 per 100,000) than in 1999 (0.02 per 100,000).
Conclusion: C. difficile has become an important public health concern with a significant mortality burden on the Texas population.