We like to think that doctors can fix anything with their latex-gloved hands and their drugs. But the truth is, there are multiple bacteria out there that can attack a persons body, that don’t necessarily have a drug to help treat it. These are called Super Bugs, and they can be potentially life threatening if not quickly taken care of by a medical professional.
What is C. Diff?
C. difficile is a toxin producing bacteria that grows inside your colon, causing painful and uncomfortable swelling. C. Diff is short for clostridium difficile colitis. The bacterial infection can be caused by numerous things.
For example, when my grandfather was in the hospital a few years ago battling esophageal cancer, he caught some type of bug. When the doctors pumped him full of anti biotics, it killed the bacteria causing the bug, but didn’t kill the C. diff bacteria. This let the C. diff bacteria take over the colon.
Symptoms
The most common type of symptom is liquid stool, usually occurring up to 15 times a day. It can also cause intense abdominal pain and loss of appetite. The issue with the stool is that is very infectious, which is usually how the bacteria spreads from person to person.
Risks of C. Diff
In patients over the age of 65, it may lead to death. It can also cause colorectal cancer, or the need to have gastrointestinal surgery. It can also lead to kidney problems or even failure as well as create a weakened immune system.
Treating C. Diff
Since there is no antibiotic designed especially to combat the C. diff bacteria itself, different steps have to be taken to rid the body of the harmful super bug. To begin, doctors usually “pump the patient full of oral antibiotics such as metronidazole, dificid, or vancocin .” In over 25% of the cases, another round of the 10-14 day treatment needs to be administered. But in some extreme cases, like my grandfathers, none of the antibiotics worked. So they had to pump him full of probiotics. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that settle in your gut. In this case, they kill the C. diff bacteria and can help to prevent it from reoccurring. One of the easiest way to to try and aid the super bug is to drink as many fluids as possible.
How You Can Prevent It
Now, obviously there is no way to completely prevent getting this super bug, especially if in the hospital. Since the bug produces infectious diarrhea, it unfortunately is quite an easy bacteria to spread. However, you can try to prevent it using some other tactics. The most obvious being wash your hands thoroughly and frequently and do NOT take antibiotics unless prescribed by your doctor. Also, when cleaning surfaces be sure to use products such as bleach.
New Research
New research shows that by giving spores of the C. diff bacteria to patients, the chances of the super bug reoccurring are very low. Scientists have also discovered that by doing stool transplants, there is a 90% success rate in stopping reoccurrence. Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) is a procedure in which fecal matter, or stool, is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline or other solution, strained, and placed in a patient, by colonoscopy, endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or enema. The point of this procedure is to replace bad bacteria with good bacteria.
This could have been a really great blog post if you would have gone more into depth, or given visuals or even more specific examples. I had never read into this and it corresponds so much with what we are doing in class! Not only would you impress Andrew but make a great writing example for any given resume if you used outside examples and lengthened it. good stuff! thanks for the read. (I know your grandfathers situation may be too close to home, but i wanted to know more!!)