Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea and most frequently identified infection in US hospitals. C. difficile is contracted after antibiotic use, when healthy gut microbiota that prevent colonization is compromised. Colonized patients shed spores that can survive for long periods of time outside the host and are resistant to commonly used disinfectants. Transmission pathways include contact with environmental reservoirs of spores on fomites, objects and surfaces that can harbor infectious agents. This study adds environmental reservoirs to a previous epidemiological model of C. difficile transmission to focus on the effect of fomite touch frequency on C. difficile transmission within a hospital ward. The dynamics of transmission are modeled deterministically using a system of ordinary differential equations representing patient population classes and pathogen environmental reservoirs. Due to the small population size of the considered hospital ward, the system is simulated stochastically and compared to the average population behavior described by the deterministic system.
