Patients with cystic fibrosis have a high carriage rate of non-toxigenic Clostridium difficile

Thirty-year-old observations report frequent asymptomatic Clostridium difficile carriage among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. In this case-control study, we found more carriers among CF patients than controls (47% versus 11%), but most strains carried by CF patients were non-toxigenic (77% versus 17%). Among CF patients, carriers were younger, with more severe pulmonary disease than non-carriers. Strains belonged to multiple PCR-ribotypes, suggesting that these CF patients did not acquire strains from each other.