New CDC Study and Blog: National Burden of Clostridium difficile Infections 

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a germ that causes major colon inflammation and deadly diarrhea, caused almost half a million infections in the United States in a single year, according to a study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Approximately 29,000 patients with a C. difficile infection died within 30 days of initial diagnosis from illnesses such as sepsis. Of those, about 15,000 deaths were estimated to be directly attributable to C. difficile infections. 

“C. difficile infections cause immense suffering and death for thousands of Americans each year,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.  “These infections can be prevented by improving antibiotic prescribing and by improving infection control in the health care system. CDC hopes to ramp up prevention of this deadly infection by supporting State Antibiotic Resistance PreventionPrograms in all 50 states.” More details about the study, including effect on certain age groups, are available at http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2015/dpk-deadly-diarrhea.html. Prevention progress of C. difficile in hospitals by state and hospital were previously published and can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/hai/progress-report/index.html and http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare, respectively.