Clostridium Difficile Quotes

Hospitals in almost every country have reported outbreaks of C. diff, and the number and severity of cases continues to soar. In 2010 there were 350,000 cases of C. diff diagnosed in U.S. hospitals. That means that of 1,000 patients admitted to U.S hospitals, 10 will become infected with C. diff, most of them elderly. In some hospitals and nursing homes, as many as one in five patients is infected. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

The idea behind a stool transplant is to "reseed the lawn," so to speak. After exposure to weeks or months of antibiotics (including Vanco) the normal bowel flora - the organisms in your colon that help prevent infection - is weakened. They simply can't keep C. diff out. In other words, the normal barrier function of the colonic flora is gone, and C. diff gets right back in. So putting in some normal flora from a healthy donor is like reseeding the lawn - it restores the barrier. When that happens, C. diff cannot get back in, and the infection is cured. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

Some older or very ill patients may not be suitable candidates for fecal transfer. Colonoscopy is an invasive procedure, especially for those patients who are too ill with other conditions like cancer, heart failure, dialysis, or Alzheimer's. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

Many people infected with C. diff are sick with diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and weight loss. Others are "carriers" of C. diff with no signs or symptoms of disease. Some of these carriers have been recently infected with C. diff but have recovered and now feel well. But carriers still have the C. diff organism in their stools and can serve as a silent reservoir of infection in hospitals and nursing homes. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

Testing stools for C. diff in patients after they have finished their Flagyl or Vanco for 10 days and after their bowel movements have returned to normal (that is, formed and not watery) is a waste of time and money, and is not helpful to the doctor or patient. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

C. diff can sometimes be life-threatening, even in healthy young adults. ~ J. Thomas LaMont

It is difficult to retain what you may have learned unless you should practice it. -Difficile est tenere quae acceperis nisi exerceas ~ Pliny The Younger

Difficile est satiram non scribere
[It is hard not to write a satire] ~ Juvenal

Clostridium botulinum: Found in jams and preserves that weren't prepared properly, this bad bug produces one of the deadliest toxins on Earth-it enters our nerve cells and paralyzes them. Marketed as Botox, it's injected into people's foreheads to make wrinkles disappear! ~ Jennifer Gardy

... difficile est longum subito deponere amoren, difficile est, uerum hoc qua lubet efficias ... ... it is hard to throw off long-established love: Hard, but this you must manage somehow ... ~ Anonymous