There has been an increase in the incidence and severity of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) worldwide, and strategies to control, monitor, and diminish the associated morbidity and mortality have been developed. Several typing methods have been used for typing of isolates and studying the epidemiology of CDI; serotyping was the first typing method, but then was replaced by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). PCR ribotyping is now the gold standard method; however, multi locus sequence typing (MLST) schemes have been developed.

New sequencing technologies have allowed comparing whole bacterial genomes to address genetic relatedness with a high level of resolution and discriminatory power to distinguish between closely related strains. Here, we review the most frequent C. difficile ribotypes reported worldwide, with a focus on their epidemiology and genetic characteristics.

在世界范围内，艰难梭菌感染（CDI）的发病率和严重性已经增加，并且已经开发出控制，监测和减少相关发病率和死亡率的策略。几种分型方法已用于分离株的分型和研究CDI的流行病学。血清分型是第一种打字方法，但后来被脉冲场凝胶电泳（PFGE）取代。PCR核糖分型法现已成为金标准方法；但是，已经开发了多基因座序列分型（MLST）方案。

新的测序技术已允许比较整个细菌基因组，以较高的分辨率和区分能力来区分密切相关的菌株，从而解决遗传相关性。在这里，我们回顾了全世界报道的最常见的艰难梭菌核型，重点是它们的流行病学和遗传特征。