It's Everywhere!

According to a new study published in the American Journal of Infection Control, nearly 10% of patients are colonized with Clostridium difficle at the time of admission. C. diff, as it is commonly known, is a pathogen that can cause severe diarrhea. Researchers enrolled over 700 patients as they were admitted to a large tertiary medical center in this study, patients with diarrhea or other symptoms of colitis were excluded.  Stool specimens were tested; 9.7% of patients were positive via a real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, a test that is faster than historical methods. The authors suggest these colonized, asymptomatic patients could be a potential source of nosocomial transmission.

Watch our own Dr. Cassandra Salgado and Linda Formby discuss controlling hospital acquired infections.