CDC Safe Healthcare Blog: C. diff - Are Carriers Spreading the Germ?

C. Difficile – Are Carriers Spreading the Germ?
A Commentary in JAMA Internal Medicine

On today’s CDC Safe Healthcare Blog, CDC’s Dr. Clifford McDonald talks about the bacteria that most often causes healthcare-associated infections – Clostridium difficile (C. difficile). There is increasing evidence that patients who carry C. difficile but who are not sick can still spread the germ and make other people sick.

Dr. McDonald and CDC colleague Dr. Alice Guh dig further into this issue in a recent JAMA Internal Medicine article. Their piece is focused on a recent study where clinicians proactively looked for and isolated C. difficilecarriers (patients without symptoms) upon hospital admission. In this study, this practice was linked to far fewer cases of healthcare-associated C. difficile infections. 

Read Dr. McDonald’s blog post at DHQP’s Safe Healthcare Blog to learn more.