The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped a bombshell Wednesday, releasing a study that said 29,000 deaths were associated with the gut-dwelling super bug Clostridium difficile.
The new study concluded that one out of every nine patients aged 65 or older who contracted the bacterium at a medical facility died within 30 days of diagnosis. The CDC said Wednesday that preventing C. difficile "is a national priority."
“In terms of healthcare-associated infections, it’s right there at the top.” said Cliff McDonald, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC, said. “It’s causing infection and death right now.”
C. difficile causes an inflammation of the colon and deadly diarrhea. One veteran said her infection caused her stabbing pain in her gut and two extended stays at the VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. She said she contracted the infection at a hospital after undergoing a preventative colonoscopy and endoscopy for ulcers.
Contaminated instruments used in colonoscopies and endoscopic procedures have been known to carrying these super germs.
The germ is usually picked up by the patient from contaminated surfaces or spread person-to-person.
The CDC’s study also comes after the Florida Department of Health on Monday declined a request by the Palm Beach Post to release data provided by laboratories with electronic filing capabilities on a host of super germs. The department said the information is confidential.
The news also comes one week after Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center announced an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea – or CRE, yet another antibiotic-resistant super bug. The Los Angeles outbreak stands at 179 infected and two deaths.
“CRE is really nothing more than a fear. There are not that many infections occurring right now but it could evolve into something worse than the current C. difficle problem,” he said.
C. difficile, CRE and gonorrhea are considered urgent threats by the CDC.
The CDC culled the C. difficle data from 2011, saying it represents the largest, longitudinal, U.S. population-based surveillance for the infection to date. It included laboratory-based surveillance across diverse U.S. geographic locations.
CDC previously attributed 14,000 deaths a year to C. difficile, compiled from 2007 death certificates. CDC spokeswoman Melissa Brower said 15,000 people in the new study died directly from the germ, while the other 14,000 died from other causes while infected with C. difficile.
The study will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The new study found 500,000 Americans suffer from C. difficile in a single year and that more than 100,000 of those infections developed among residents of U.S. nursing homes.
Those 29,000 patients who died did so within 30 days of the initial diagnosis. More than 80 percent of the deaths associated with C. difficile occurred among Americans aged 65 years or older.
The new study found that one out of every five patients with a healthcare-associated C. difficile infection experienced a recurrence of the infection.
“Of those, about 15,000 deaths were estimated to be directly attributable to C. difficile infections, making C. difficile a very important cause of infectious disease death in the United States,” the CDC stated.
And this particular super bug is costly. The CDC noted that previous studies indicate that C. difficile has become the most common microbial cause of healthcare-associated infections in U.S. hospitals and costs up to $4.8 billion each year in excess health care costs for acute care facilities alone.
“C. difficile infections cause immense suffering and death for thousands of Americans each year,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden.
“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.”
The CDC’s lengthy release went into depth about patients who are at highest risk for C. difficile, such as older Americans. The CDC study found that one out of every three C. difficile infections occur in patients 65 years or older.
About two-thirds of C. difficile infections were found to be associated with an impatient stay at a medical facility but not necessarily a hospital.
These super bugs have emerged through evolution due to mankind’s increase reliance – and misuse – of antibiotics.
The CDC explained that when a person takes broad-spectrum antibiotics, beneficial bacteria that are normally present in the human gut and protect against infection are suppressed for several weeks to months. This is when C. difficile strikes.
“More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their hospital stay, but studies have shown that 30 percent to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect,” the CDC stated on Wednesday.
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