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We did it! With the help of people like you, we reached more than 1 million people during C. diff Awareness Month. As you likely know, lack of awareness is a huge obstacle for preventing C. diff, and for getting quickly diagnosed and appropriately treated.
We continue to hear every day from people who first hear the term “C. diff” when they or a loved one is being diagnosed. They were unaware that antibiotics or antacids could make them vulnerable to an even worse infection. Or, they weren’t aware that being in a hospital or nursing home greatly increases their risk for C. diff.
We started our “See C. diff” campaign in 2019 to generate broad public awareness of this preventable but often-life threatening infection. In just three years, we’ve increased our reach 1,250%, from 80,000 our first year to over 1,000,000 people this November.
Taking what we learned from our first two years, we invested more heavily this year in what worked well in 2019 and 2020. We ran ads on social media and pushed our new public service announcement on YouTube. We hired a public relations firm, resulting in several stories and interviews, including “New bid for C. diff infection to become ‘nationally’ notifiable” in Digital Journal, and a two-part interview on Noise Filter. Our petition to make C. diff a Nationally Notifiable Disease also got hundreds of new signatories.
Here’s a breakdown of how we reached people in 2021:
The critical importance of increasing awareness is captured in this quote from a survivor who responded to the campaign: “The sickest I have ever been is when I had C.diff…I’ve had Ulcerative Colitis for years and started suffering with C.diff in 2016 as a result of complications of my UC…I didn’t realize it was so serious until my gastroenterologist suggested a (fecal) transplant to help me get over C.diff.”
We are endlessly grateful to our generous sponsors, organizational partners, and everyone who shared a story, retweeted, liked or commented on our content throughout C. diff Awareness Month.
We’re proud of what we’ve done, but we need to go further and faster. Will you help us to raise C. diff awareness all year long by donating today?
Donate Now!
Together, we will see C. diff defeated.
Great news..Have firsthand knowledge about c-diff!
Thank you so much! I also had CDiff for 3 months I really felt I was dying. The Gastroinology would do nothing with regards to colonoscopy or anything, just sent me home and told me to come back in 2 months that when it’s gone they can then do the colonoscopy, I have never felt so disregarded. 3 emergency room visits with IV & morphine later…I’m feeling well although I know it’s still lingering, I can tell.
I can so relate as to what you went through. I was on vancomycin for over 4 months. I took the initial dosage for 2 weeks, tested negative, and a week later it came back full force and I had to take the antibiotics again for two weeks at a time, 4x a day, until I was finally weened off of them. It was a nightmare. I thought I was dying. I was working from home and it’s a good thing cause I could never have gone to work. I firmly believe i got it from the vaccine and now I’m afraid to take the booster shot. It just seemed very coincidental that I was fine before the vaccine and it happened to a friend as well. If you go on the Pzizer website you will see that it says, if you develop symptoms of ulcerative colitis of Crohns disease, contact your gastroenterologist. Well, next month I am being tested for that and I’m petrified to take the booster shot. I’m afraid it will start all over again. I know how you must feel especially since you were in the hospital. Did he give you any medicine for the Cdiff like he should have? It lingers for a long time. I haven’t been the same since. I hope you feel better. This disease it a nightmare. I lost almost 20 pounds which brought me to 99 pounds, but I gained some back since I’m eating more but I’m still not myself.
Not able to donate; don’t even have money for gas in our vehicular at this point.
I’m sorry to hear that. I hope things improve for you financially.
I took vancomycin for an entire year but finally got rid of it. I took 4 pills 4 times a day then 3. How bad is the fecal transplant in case I get it again.
I had not been in A nursing home. Had not has A vaccine or was not on antibiotics