“We found that MRSA infections have declined steadily since 2005, but C. difficile infections have increased since 2007,” says lead researcher Becky Miller, M.D., an infectious diseases fellow at Duke University Medical Center.
Researchers evaluated data from 28 hospitals in the DICON network. During a two-year period, there were 847 cases of C. difficile infection in 28 hospitals; the rate of infection was 25% higher than that of MRSA.
“This is not a nuisance disease,” says DICON director Daniel Sexton, M.D. “A small percentage of patients with C. difficile may die, despite treatment. Also, it is likely that the routine use of alcohol-containing hand cleansers to prevent infections from MRSA does not simultaneously prevent infections due to C. difficile.”
