Intestinal infection with the bacterium Clostridium difficile — widely known as C. diff — is the most frequent healthcare-linked infection in the country.
C.diff infections now afflict about a half million Americans each year, causing more than 29,000 deaths and costing the nation’s healthcare system an estimated $5 billion.¹
A new Penn study has uncovered a marked increase in this recurring and potentially deadly form of a common intestinal infection that can result in diarrhea, severe gut inflammation and fatal blood infection, especially among the elderly.
By analyzing a nationwide health insurance database, researchers from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine discovered that the annual incidence of multiple recurring C. difficile infections increased by nearly 200 percent from 2001 to 2012, according to the study published online Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine . During the same 11-year period, the rate of ordinary C. diff infections grew by only about 40 percent.
Cases of the bacterial infections are considered to have multiple recurrences when patients have been treated with at least three closely spaced courses of antibiotics. Ordinary C. diff infections clear up after one or two courses of medication.It seems to flourish in people whose normal, healthy gut bacteria have been killed or reduced, sometimes as a consequence of medication, said study senior author James D. Lewis, a Penn gastroenterology professor. That may include antibiotics, proton-pump inhibitors or corticosteroids.
At one time, C. diff infections were seen almost solely in patients in hospitals and nursing homes. Increasingly, however, people who have not been hospitalized are getting the infections, Lewis said. The bacteria have the ability to encapsulate within spores, making them resistant to usual sterilizing procedures.
Although the rapid rise in recurring infections may be linked to the more frequent use of antibiotics and corticosteroids, it could also be due to the recent emergence of new strains of the bacteria, Lewis said.
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1, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)