Mathematically Modeling the Role of Healthcare Workers in the Environmental Transmission of C. difficile

Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea and one of the most common healthcare-acquired infections in United States hospitals. C. difficile persists well in healthcare environments because it forms spores that can survive for long periods of time and can be transmitted to susceptible patients through contact with contaminated hands and surfaces that can harbor infectious agents, called fomites. This study explores an alteration of a previous model to include healthcare workers as a transmission vector in conjunction with high-touch and low-touch fomites. The transmission is described by a system of ordinary differential equations representing four patient classes, two pathogen environmental reservoirs, and two healthcare worker classes. Parameters have a significant effect on the incidence and three different parameter scenarios were explored. The goal of this study was to successfully alter the pre-existing model to encompass the healthcare workers as a transmission vector.

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