C. difficile (cont.)
Some of the most common C. diff infection symptoms include the likes of:
- fever
- loss of appetite
- nausea
- stomach pains and cramps
- watery diarrhea
While the symptoms may seem to mimic those of bad food poisoning, this drug-resistant disease that you get from the bacteria is dangerous because it is highly infectious, and you can not only get it from coming in contact with an infected person, but you can catch it in a hospital and just from having gone through a long course of antibiotics. Getting C. difficile from a hospital or nursing facility is less likely than getting it from prolonged antibiotic usage.
C. diff is highly infectious because the bacteria can live outside of the body for long periods of time, and if you have accidentally touched an infected surface from feces or from a bathroom after a person, you can easily catch it too. This bacteria is also resistant to antimicrobial gels (such as hand sanitizer), and the only way to get rid of it is to thoroughly wash your hands and avoid touching your face or mouth until you can wash your hands.
The categories of people that are at risk of getting C. diff include patients over the age of 65, people who already suffer from other illnesses, and people who have recently taken antibiotics.
In the U.S., C. diff is a major cause of concern, with a study done in 2017 showing an estimated average of about 225,000 hospitalizations with this drug-resistant disease and about 12,800 deaths caused by it. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of this drug-resistant disease has increased tenfold!
