In the latest from ContagionLive, John Parkinson sits down with PLF CEO Christian John Lillis to talk about how he became involved in C. diff advocacy. The sudden death of Peggy Lillis in 2010 was devastating to everyone in her life – devastating enough to motivate the beginnings of Peggy Lillis Foundation.

“I’ll never forget the person said: ‘people die from C diff every day in New York, it’s not unusual. We don’t report it to the state or the CDC.’ And my response to that was, a healthy 56-year-old woman going to the dentist and dying 6 days later isn’t unusual to you?” Lillis said to the person. “And so that really is what made me dig into how C diff was reported, and to whom it was reported, and how easily the public could access that data and have that knowledge…I’m still angry over that conversation.”

Making C. diff Count

Peggy Lillis Foundation believes that every American who is harmed or dies from a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), including C. diff infections, deserves to be counted. Because of gaps in infection and mortality reporting at the state and federal levels, tens of thousands of Americans are not included in official estimates.

On July 23, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced H.R. 9008 Now we are urging Congress, through sponsorship and passage of the “Peggy Lillis C. difficile Inclusion Act”, requiring that C. diff infections be added to the list of conditions monitored in the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS).

Hear more about the bill and watch Christian’s full interview here.