Other Categories
Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, with revised estimates for the burden of 
harm and death caused by Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. The study notes that C. diff caused almost half a million infections among Americans in a single year, including more than 100,000 in U.S. nursing homes.
The study also estimates that 29,000 patients died within 30 days of the initial diagnosis of C. diff, including 15,000 estimated to be directly attributable to the disease. Previous studies estimated C. diff-related deaths at 14,000. According to CDC, C. diff 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. The new study found that 1 out of every 5 patients with a healthcare-associated C. difficile infection experienced a recurrence of the infection and 1 out of every 9 patients aged 65 or older with a healthcare-associated C. difficile infection died within 30 days of diagnosis.
Peggy Lillis Foundation’s executive director Christian John Lillis participated in the CDC’s press conference on the study’s release. A transcript and audio file of the conference are available online. CDC has also created a new infographic that we urge everyone to share and help us spread the word.
It’s our hope that that this new, more comprehensive assessment of C. diff’s impact will spark much greater attention to this disease. Increased public awareness about C. diff’s prevalence, risk factors, prevention and treatment is crucial so Americans can make informed decisions and seek help early. We must also translate that awareness into tangible policy changes that we know will save lives. That’s why Peggy Lillis Foundation advocates for robust antibiotic stewardship, sanitation and hand hygiene programs at every health care facility; mandatory public reporting in every state; and increased public and private investment in both prevention and treatments.
HI I just got out of a rehab unit for this crap disease OMG I can tell you it did almost kill me.
Plus I had sepsis as well so double the bad times I was gong through and still kind of but recovering…
I’d lost a good 40-60 pounds in days not weeks or months and days.
I was scheduled for intestine and bladder surgery since my intestine had a hole in it and bladder, and was leaking into it. They had to take a foot of my intestine cut it out and sow what was left back together. Then close and destroy two stones in my bladder then sow that back up as well. I must have caught this damn stuff from that since not long after being home I kept not being able to do much of my own… I’d eat but mainly skipped eating most days and slept hours upon hours. My wife kept saying I needed to got back to the hospital but kept arguing with her I didn’t want another catheter, but finally one night just so week I relented and had her call me an ambulance and went back to the hospital.
I spent a week or more there then transferred to my home states rehab in the town I live in and was there for three weeks or so. I just got out yesterday.
When I first was in the Hospital the second time I weighed 158 from over 200 pounds to at times almost 300. But finally they told me it was gone and I gained back almost 20 pounds so yeah I right now survived this deadly crap.
I am still weak but I keep eating and doing my own stuff as I can… These low weights I hadn’t weighed since 13-15 years of age and have always been fat so…
I have a thing called a pick line in me that they put in at the hospital still and have abut two weeks of in home care to go through… So I can testify how possibly deadly this thing is it’s no joke if your doing nothing but sleeping and not eating go to the hospital and get help or you will die…