What is C Diff?
C Diff is a nasty diarrhoea causing bug. It is the most common cause of hospital diarrhoea. Like many other germs it can live inside us without causing us any harm most of the time. In fact it can be found in the gut of up to 1 in every 33 healthy adults – the proportion is higher in people over 65. How do you catch it? C Diff is present as one of the ‘normal’ bacteria in the gut of up to 3% of healthy adults. It rarely causes problems in babies or children. Rates of colonisation and infection increase over the age of 65 years. C Diff can cause illness when certain antibiotics disturb the balance of ‘normal’ bacteria in the gut. Symptoms are generally caused by the production of toxins in the large bowel once the bacteria have become established. Its effects can range from nothing in asymptomatic colonisation to diarrhoea of varying severity, which may resolve once antibiotic treatment is stopped, through to severe inflammation of the bowel which can sometimes be life threatening. It i
