CDC report on C. diff offers encouragement, motivation for hospitalists

“What this data tells us is that we need to educate our doctors to prescribe antibiotics more carefully; ask patients about diarrhea even if they are coming in for another disease; and order diagnostic tests if [they report it].”

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ent Joseph Ming-Wah Li, MD, MPH, SFHM, says the findings underscore the need for early identification. “If we don’t identify them early on, we could put them in rooms with other patients who are not currently infected with C. diff and could certainly exacerbate the problem,” he says.

He also says that while it’s widely accepted that antibiotics are overprescribed, the use of antibiotics in agriculture─in the poultry and cattle industries, for example─is an area that should be explored.

“One of the things to think about is the amount of antibiotics that are used for non- healthcare reasons,” he says, “and that also is a very large contributor to the problem.”

Thomas R. Collins is a freelance medical writer in South Florida.