APIC: Clostridium difficile infecting one in 100 patients
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
November 12, 2008
Although much attention has been paid to preventing MRSA in hospitals over the past year and a half, The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) released a new report showing that Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is infecting one out of every 100 patients in hospitals today, reports The Wall Street Journal Health Blog. APIC asked its member hospitals to take a one-day snapshot of infection rates and report back.
Six hundred hospitals across 47 states replied showing that nearly 7,000 patients across the U.S. have C. diff on any one day, the report says. Additionally, a recently-discovered strain of C. diff may be easier to transmit from one person to another than other strains.
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