Nearly half of American hospitals aren’t taking key steps to prevent a kind of gut infection that kills nearly 30,000 people annually and sickens hundreds of thousands more – despite strong evidence that such steps work, according to a new study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
While nearly all of the 398 hospitals in the study use a variety of measures to protect their patients from Clostridium difficile infections, 48 percent haven’t adopted strict limits on the use of antibiotics and other drugs that can allow the dangerous bug to flourish, the researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System report.
Hospital patients are especially prone to developing C. diff infections, and suffering serious effects — especially after they take antibiotics that disrupt the community of bacteria in their digestive systems.
Read more: Are hospitals doing all they can to prevent C. diff infections? Not yet, new study suggests