Clostridium Difficile. C. Difficile or “C-dif” has been implicated in a number of diseases and tends to cause gastrointestinal problems. It is a remarkably resilient (and apparently sticky) spore which survives in hospitals and nursing homes and newborn nurseries. Sampling has located spores on everything from hands, lab coats, computer keyboards, telephones and toilet seats!
Once ingested the spore becomes actively virulent and can cause critical injury or even death in elderly and immuno-suppressed patients. So wash your hands…often.
Of MRSA and VRE. Methycilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and Vancomycin Resistent Enterococcus. Two very long names for two very small “super bugs” which cause a number of illness and a number of deaths in addition to increasing hospital stays and expenses.
The fact that “super bugs” have become resistant to commonly prescribed antibiotics should be scary enough. If it weren’t, however, there’s this: Studies have shown that among 13,370 ICU room stays, some 11,949 may have been exposed to, or acquired MRSA and 11,871 may have been exposed to, or acquired VRE. Obviously this means that a good portion of that studied population were exposed to, or may have acquired both!
posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esq.
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