Updates on Clostridioides difficile in Europe

Dr. P. Mastrantonio has served till 2015 as research director in the Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases of the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS). She completed her studies in Biological Sciences at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy. She has been worked in the field of clinical bacteriology at ISS where she was appointed Director of the Laboratory of Gastroenteric and Neurologic Bacterial Diseases. In particular, she has been involved in international study groups on Clostridium difficile contributing to European surveillance studies to monitor the epidemiology of C.difficile infection. She was an Executive Committee member of the ESCMID Study Group on C. difficile (ESGCD) till 2014 and was appointed by the Italian Ministry of Health, in the years 2014-2017,  as National Microbiological Focal Point at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. Dr. M. Rupnik is professor of Microbiology at Medical faculty, University of Maribor, and Head of Department for Microbiological Research at National laboratory for health, environment and food (NLZOH) in Maribor, Slovenia. She completed University studies and PhD at Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana. Her research is focused on molecular epidemiology of C. difficile and lately also on gut microbiota and NGS applications in clinical microbiology. She is von Humboldt fellow, has obtained ECCMID award for Advances in Clinical Microbiology and Slovenian national award for exceptional scientific achievements. Since 2023 she acts as Editor-in-Chief for Anaerobe journal. She was a member of ESGCD Executive board and is serving as President of series of ICDS meetings (International C. difficile Symposium)

• Economic burden of Clostridioides difficile infection in European countries.- The need for European surveillance of CDI.-Diagnostic guidance for C. difficile infections.- European practice for CDI treatment.- Faecal microbiota transplantation as emerging treatment in European countries 2.0.- Probiotics for prevention and treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection.- Immunization strategies against Clostridioides difficile.- Ribotypes and new virulent strains across Europe.- Antibiotic resistances of Clostridioides difficile.- Comparative genomics of Clostridioides difficile.- An updated view on the cellular uptake and mode-of-action of Clostridioides difficile toxins.- Clostridioides difficile biofilm.- Clostridioides difficile sporulation.- Membrane vesicles of C.difficile and other Clostridial species.- Non-human C.difficile reservoirs and sources: animals,food, environment.- The ESCMID Study Group  for Clostridioides difficile : history, role and perspectives.