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Quote by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner

“Humanity shares a common ancestry with all living things on Earth. We often share especially close intimacies with the microbial world. In fact, only a small percentage of the cells in the human body are human at all. Yet, the common biology and biochemistry that unites us also makes us susceptible to contracting and transmitting infectious disease.”

Quote by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner

Book:Infectious Diseases: In Context

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Infectious Diseases: In Context

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Brenda Wilmoth Lerner

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“In large groups of enclosed people who were not allowed out, infectious diseases spread like wildfire. For example, in the 1880s in a workhouse in Kent, it was found that in a child population of one hundred and fifty-four, only three children did not have tuberculosis.”

Infectious Diseases Workhouse 1880s

Book:Shadows of the workhouse

Source: Shadows of the workhouse

“C. diff is not a simple “stomach bug” like viral gastroenteritis or food poisoning that disappears in nearly all patients after a week or two.”

Disease Antibiotics Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“Hospitals in almost every country have reported outbreaks of C. diff, and the number and severity of cases continues to soar. In 2010 there were 350,000 cases of C. diff diagnosed in U.S. hospitals. That means that of 1,000 patients admitted to U.S hospitals, 10 will become infected with C. diff, most of them elderly. In some hospitals and nursing homes, as many as one in five patients is infected.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“In the past five years, C. diff has spread across the globe, helped in large part by air travel, the availability and frequent use of antibiotics, and the graying of the world’s population.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“Among frail, elderly patients, C. diff can be fatal in approximately 5-10%. Some patients with severe C. diff end up losing their colon and have a permanent bag on their side to catch bodily waste, via a procedure known as an ileostomy.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“Some studies have reported C. diff in food purchased in a supermarket. Dogs, horses, pigs, and rabbits can also be carriers of C. diff, although spread of disease from pets or domestic animals to humans has yet to be documented. Like most infections, it is usually impossible to pinpoint the source of C. diff.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“Testing stools for C. diff in patients after they have finished their Flagyl or Vanco for 10 days and after their bowel movements have returned to normal (that is, formed and not watery) is a waste of time and money, and is not helpful to the doctor or patient.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“C. diff can sometimes be life-threatening, even in healthy young adults.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“Once C. diff leaves the colon of the infected patient in a liquid stool, it usually converts to a spore that is like a seed that lies dormant in the hospital until it gets picked up by a suitable human host. Once swallowed, C. diff germinates (hatches) in the bowel and starts a new cycle of infection.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile

Author:J. Thomas LaMont

“The idea behind a stool transplant is to “reseed the lawn,” so to speak. After exposure to weeks or months of antibiotics (including Vanco) the normal bowel flora — the organisms in your colon that help prevent infection — is weakened. They simply can’t keep C. diff out. In other words, the normal barrier function of the colonic flora is gone, and C. diff gets right back in. So putting in some normal flora from a healthy donor is like reseeding the lawn — it restores the barrier. When that happens, C. diff cannot get back in, and the infection is cured.”

Disease Hospital Antibiotics Nursing Home Infectious Diseases Ibs Intestinal Cdiff Gastrointenstinal C Diff Clostridium Difficile Fecal Transplant Stool Transplant

Author:J. Thomas LaMont