I know that dKos is a political site, and I thought twice about adding this diary, but I really feel like I should spread this information anywhere I can.
"Clostridium difficile" is certainly not a phrase I had been familiar with. But after what has happened to my family, I'm getting to know it pretty well. "C-Diff", as it is commonly known, is a resistant and insidious bacterium which can only flourish in the context of a nearly antiseptic environment.
In fact, C-Diff wasn't a problem until the widespread use and overuse of antibiotics and cleaners. See, C-Diff is unable to cause the human organism problems unless most or all of the benign micro-organisms in our body have been killed-off by antibiotics. In other words, C-Diff can't kill unless you've been treated in a hospital by antibiotics to such an extent that your own body's micro-flora have been decimated.
Let me reproduce some of Wikipedia's entry (I double-checked this information, and it seems correct to me and to an M.D. I spoke to.)
Characteristics
Clostridia are motile bacteria that are ubiquitous in nature and are especially prevalent in soil. Under the microscope after Gram staining, they appear as long drumsticks with a bulge located at their terminal ends. Clostridium difficile cells are Gram positive, while its spores are Gram negative. Clostridium shows optimum growth when plated on blood agar at human body temperatures. When the environment becomes stressed, however, the bacteria produce spores that tolerate the extreme conditions that the active bacteria cannot. First described by Hall and O'Toole in 1935, "the difficult clostridium" was resistant to early attempts at isolation and grew very slowly in culture.
C. difficile is a commensal bacterium of the human intestine in a minority of the population. Patients who have been staying long-term in a hospital or a nursing home have a higher likelihood of being colonized by this bacterium. In small numbers it does not result in disease of any significance. Antibiotics, especially those with a broad spectrum of activity, cause disruption of normal intestinal flora, leading to an overgrowth of C. difficile. This leads to pseudomembranous colitis.
C. difficile is resistant to most antibiotics. It flourishes under these conditions. It is transmitted from person to person by the fecal-oral route. Because the organism forms heat-resistant spores, it can remain in the hospital or nursing home environment for long periods of time. It can be cultured from almost any surface in the hospital. Once spores are ingested, they pass through the stomach unscathed because of their acid-resistance. They change to their active form in the colon and multiply.
It has been observed that several disinfectants commonly used in hospitals may fail to kill the bacteria, and may actually promote spore formation. However, disinfectants containing bleach are effective in killing the organisms.
I'm posting this here because both my mother and my grandmother are very sick with this illness, and they both caught it only because they went into the hospital voluntarily for minor infections. The treatments they received for their infections actually CAUSED the C. Diff infection, which is now untreatable.
What this means, in practical terms, is bleeding colitis and diarrhea up to 20 times a day, with little hope of a cure. I have loved ones returning to hospital every week for more antibiotics...which temporarily reduce the C-Diff, but leave their immune systems ruined. This infection is a growing cause of premature death amongst healthy people who have no illness, apart from the C-Diff they got from treatment for a negligible illness.
Please speak to your doctor before agreeing to take antibiotics IN A HOSPITAL SETTING.