C-Diff in Human Intestine

C-Diff – What’s the Diff?

Angie SzumlinskiHealth

The dreaded C-Diff infection! We all cringe when we hear those words right? We also struggle to know what is considered best practice today as the recommendations periodically change.

So think about this, what if that new admission who develops C-Diff 3 months later was actually the cause of the infection? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if we could show supporting documentation that it might not be “our fault”? Well good news! A recent study has shown that many people are “carriers” of the infection and don’t have symptoms/signs of the infection. That’s correct, the participants in the study had peri-rectal swabs taken within 24 hours of admission and showed C-Diff was present upon admission. Ultimately, 38.1% of the patients who were identified as “carriers” developed active infection! Seriously consider keeping this information handy just in case you have an outbreak of C-Diff!