[Clostridium difficile and diarrhea in infants in the first half-year of life].

In order to study a possible etiological relationship between Clostridium and diarrhea in children of the first half year of life and to characterize the colonization of the intestine with these bacteria, bacteriological investigations of feces were carried out in neonates and babies aged 1, 4 and 14 days and 1, 3 and 6 months. The development of the children and their health status were monitored under home conditions. It has been established that the colonization of the neonates' intestine with Clostridium including C. Difficile occurs within the early times (since the 4th day of life). Later the colonization with C. difficile becomes wavy in nature. Among 7 types of Clostridium isolated from the intestine of the children, C. difficile occurred most frequently (29.1%). The overwhelming majority of the strains of these bacteria produced toxin whose activity did no exceed 10(-1)-10(-2). The cytopathic effect was mostly demonstrable in 72 hours. No convincing evidence was obtained about the etiological importance of C. difficile in the development of diarrhea in the children placed under observation. It is likely that the latter one was due to the disturbance of intestinal biocenosis, that manifested by profound quantitative disorders (proliferation of the opportunistic aerobic flora, a dramatic reduction of the content of bifido- and lactic acid bacteria up to their complete absence). At the same time a great number of children carrying C. difficile attests to a potential development of specific diarrheas (under hospital conditions and during massive antibacterial therapy).