Ohio C Diff Infections
Posted by Patti on January 19th, 2006 / Print This Post
These numbers seem very low to me. 16 cases? I’ve seen that many in two nursing homes alone. But the article states that this is just the first reports coming in. I don’t wish for the number to be higher, but it’s surprises me.
Jan. 18–Ohio released on Tuesday its first available data on the number of cases of one type of potentially deadly infection at hospitals and nursing homes.But state officials concede it’s too soon to say what these numbers mean, or whether they are higher or lower than what’s expected.
Summit County hospitals and nursing homes whose data were available reported 16 new and six recurrent cases of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections over the first week of this year — the first reporting period.
The data for all hospitals or nursing homes were not yet available.
The available data showed three cases at Akron General Medical Center, five at the three hospitals of the Summa Health System, three at Edwin Shaw Rehab Center and one at Select Specialty Hospital, an independent business located in Akron General.
Nursing homes in Summit County reported 10 cases.
Kristopher Weiss, an Ohio Department of Health spokesman, said it is not yet known the percentage of the approximately 1,150 facilities from which the state has received data so far.
On Jan. 1, the Ohio Department of Health began requiring hospitals and nursing homes to report their numbers of initial and recurrent cases of C. diff for six months.
“We need to examine how widespread this bacterium is in hospitals and long-term care facilities,” said agency director J. Nick Baird. “While C. diff thankfully does not spread easily from person to person, a new, aggressive strain of C. diff is of growing concern to the public health, hospital and long-term care communities.”
C. diff is a bacteria that normally resides harmlessly along with protective bacteria in the intestines. But when antibiotics kill protective bacteria, C. diff can cause infection, resulting in symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue. The new data are meant to establish a baseline for expected numbers of C. diff cases.
February 17th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
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February 17th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Cleaner kills C.dff. (Clostridium difficile - vegetative form) in 1 minute. The Kayline Company Cleveland Ohio has an E.P.A. registered product in ready to use quart containers designed to kill C-diff. For more information call 1-800-426-5820 or e-mail info@kaylinecompany.com
April 20th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
My father has suffered from c-diff since November, ‘05. Finally, this April he seemed to be doing better so we moved him from the nursing home / rehab center in Eastgate ( East of Cincinnati) to his home. A nurse on staff told us it was a good thing we were moving him because every other resident in rehab had c-diff. I have no idea how many permanent residents also have it. Re-hab has 24 beds, usually full, so that would be 12 people.
This is a terribly destructive disease for the elderly. It causes renal failure, heart and vascular problems and other problems. I feel the medical community is playing down the danger. I surmise that many elderly deaths in the hospitals and nursing homes are caused by c-diff, but since the toxins the disease produces effect the heart and kidneys, they, not c-diff, are listed as the cause of death.
I believe a more intense study is needed not just to catalog cases, but to collect data on all patients recieving anti-biotic treatments in the hospitals and nursing homes. Different, more stringent policies regarding cleaning of hospital rooms need enacted immediately. Please refer to the volumes of information on the internet regarding c-diff. This is a worldwide problem.
December 1st, 2006 at 12:29 am
My sister is almost 41 and has c-diff. Should I be concerned that she could die?
December 11th, 2006 at 12:55 am
Its treatable Diane. Go to the cdiffsupport.com site, hast tons of info. Keep her on lots of yogurt and other probiotics.