Clostridium Difficile
Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic bacillus bacteria. Clostridium difficile infection is considered one of the healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea (antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis). C. difficile exists in soil, food and colonizes the gastrointestinal tract of several animals and human beings.1 It is estimated that about 5–15% of adults, up to 84.4% of newborns and infants, and nearly 57% of long-term care facilities’ residents are carriers of C. difficile. 2
Exposure and Transmission Characteristics:
Clostridium difficile spores are shed in feces. Feces-contaminated items and surfaces serve a reservoir for the Clostridium difficile spores. These spores can persist on fomites and environmental surfaces for months and transmitted to patients through fecal-oral route through hands of healthcare personnel who have touched a contaminated surface.
Pathogenesis:
C. difficile-associated colitis is à toxin-mediated disease and several virulence factors have been implicated in its pathogenesis; First, modification of
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16 This CDI seasonality follows, with a lag of 2-3 months, the peak seasonality of antibiotic consumption. In the past 10 years, the epidemiology of C. difficile has evolved to include community-acquired cases. 17,18 The proportion of community-acquired CDI cases reported ranged from 10 to 50 %. In the U.S., an investigation of the epidemiology of community-associated CDI between 2009 and 2011 showed that 82 % of patients acquiring C. difficile in the community had no recent healthcare exposure. Also, that 36% of patients had not received antibiotics during the previous 12 weeks but did have significant exposure to proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) agents.
Clostridium difficile, otherwise known as C. diff, is a species of spore-forming, anaerobic, gram-positive bacteria that is known to cause watery diarrhea. 1 The genus name, Clostridium refers to the spindle shape of the organism while Difficile means difficult in Latin due to the fact that this organism thrives in unfavorable conditions and is very difficult to isolate.4 The incidence of getting CDI has increased over the years due to new strains of increased toxin production of the bacteria and increased resistance to antibiotics.2 It is a gastrointestinal infection, and the most common cause of infectious diarrhea.1 C. difficile was first identified in the feces of healthy newborns back in the 1930’s and by 1935, it was considered normal flora. 2 During 1974, researchers conducted that about 21% of patients that were treated with an antibiotic called clindamyacin reported diarrhea and about 10% of them reported to have conducted pseudomembranous colitis as a side effect of this treatment. 2 It was in 1978 where C. diff had been known to cause anti-biotic associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. 2 It is known to form spores that resist many disinfectants; it also survives for several months on different surfaces.1 It is a common form of a nosocomial infection and the prevalence of becoming infected with C. diff is about 0-15% in a health care setting. 3 The spores survive well in environments such as soil, water and animals and is distributed worldwide. 4 CDI produces two toxins (Toxin A and B), which are cytotoxic and cause tissue necrosis.4
A common hospital acquired condition that nurses see now days is clostridium difficile. This bacterium usually invades patients who have been on long-term antibiotics that have killed off bacteria that protect them from infection. C. diff is passed from host to host by both direct and indirect contact making it readily moved from patient to patient in hospital settings (Mayo, 2013, 1). Nurses can use the QSEN competencies and KSAs to help treat and prevent hospital acquired conditions such as C.diff.
...ly 24 hours postinfection, during the late exponential and early stationary phases, SpeB is dramatically upregulated as tissue invasion occurs and the bacteria disseminate (13). It is speculated that this upregulation occurs so that SpeB can cleave the GAS adhesive molecules and allow the bacteria to spread throughout the tissue during invasive infections (20). Following the dissemination of GAS in this stage, SpeB expression is once again downregulated as the bacterium invades the bloodstream. GAS selects for mutations in the CovRS regulatory system, which result in reduced expression of SpeB and a simultaneous enhancement of the production of another virulence factor, Sda1. Sda1 helps avoid host neutrophil extracellular traps, allowing the bacterium to survive in the bloodstream and produce the bacteremia and sepsis characteristic of invasive GAS infections (26).
Clinical Infectious Diseases, 49(3), 438-443. Doi:10.1086/600391. See full address and map. Medicare.gov/Hospital Compare - The Official U.S. Government Site for Medicare (n.d).
Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive spore-forming bacillus involved in foodborne illness and wound infection. It is an obligate anaerobe and the only member of the genus Clostridium that is non-motile. This microorganism is normally present in soil and decaying vegetation and is an inhabitant of animal and human intestines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, C. perfringens is one of the most common sources of foodborne illness in the United States, being the cause of an estimated 1 million cases each year. However, it is also prevalent worldwide. This bacterium has the shortest reported generation time of any organism at 6.3 minutes in thioglycollate medium, making it particularly virulent after initial inoculation.
Legionnaires disease, characterized as a form of pneumonia, is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Legionella. Legionnaires disease accumulated its name after it spread to more than 4,000 World War II Legionnaires, as well as their family and friends, which all gathered to participate in the 58th American Legion's convention in Philadelphia, about 600 of whom were staying at the hotel this convention was being held at. The day after the convention was being hosted, a great number of the people began feeling ill. No one began to think anything of it, because the symptoms were beginning to be very similar to any other stomach flu. It wasn’t until the American Legionnaires started dying of an illness no one could figure out what was, that endless tests were completed, and Medical specialists came to a conclusion that a bacteria, Legionella, was spreading through the air conditioning vents in the convention hotel. (Legionnaires disease: A history if its discovery). This non contagious infection enters the body through contaminated bacteria into water vapor that we breathe in, affecting the bronchial tubes, and lungs. Legionnaires disease was then given it’s name in 1976, after it killed 34 people from the convention in Philadelphia.
“The World Health Organization projects that as drug effectiveness decreases and antibiotic resistance increases, public education becomes more and more crucial” (476) Antibiotics were discovered in 1940 and since have been abused and misused. Between bad practices and lack of proper education antibiotic resistance has been allowed to occur. The only way to combat bacterial infections is with strong patient education and following the correct schedule in taking antibiotics.
. Many doctors and patients are unaware that antibiotics are designed to treat bacterial infections, not viral infections (Antibiotic resistance, N.D.). Many bacteria within our bodies are not harmful at all, and some of them actually provide health benefits. The bacteria that are harmful are disease-causing bacteria, which generate sicknesses such as strep throat, the common cold, and ear infections (Get, 2013). Viruses are smaller than bacteria and require hosts, such as plants or animals, in order to proliferate (What, N.D.). Doctors play a vital role in administering antibiotics, for patients rely on their knowledge and expertise in order to receive proper medication for ailments throughout their lives. According to www.acponline.org, 190 million doses of antibiotics are administered every day. Among patients that do not reside in hospitals, doctors prescribe more than 133 million antibiotic programs every year. Of those 133 million programs, it is estimated that over 50 percent of them are unnecessarily prescribed because the doctor is prescribing them for viral infections such as common colds or simple coughs (Antibiotic resistance, N.D.). However, doctors are not the only ones to blame in regard to misuse of antibiotics because their patients are just as guilty when it comes to ignorance in respect to antibiotic usage. Many preventable factors have emerged because of irresponsibility of patients, including self-medication practices and the temptations of cheap, counterfeit drugs, all of which have aggravated drug resistance in the last 20 years (What, N.D.). Also, many patients are unaware of the dangers that can result from leaving medication behind because they don’t use it. It is extremely ill-advised to leave behind eve...
Secondary:Curtis, L. (2008). Prevention of hospital-acquired infections: review of non-pharmacological interventions. Journal of Hospital Infection, 69(3), 204-219. Revised 01/20
C. difficile infection (CDI) is a dangerous healthcare-associated infection as well as a growing burden, especially with the appearance of more potent strains in the early 2000s. Clostridium difficile was initially identified as possessing the ability to initiate pseudomembranous colitis in the late 1970s. Asymptomatic colonization in healthy adults has been detected in only 3% of individuals, whereas the pervasiveness of such colonization among patients in long-term-care facilities is approximately 50%. People colonized with C. difficile act as a reservoir of contamination by infecting the environment with C. difficile spores, consequently leading to an increase of the pathogen on the hand...
Enterococci are normally found inhabiting the large bowls of humans but are also a part of the intestinal micro flora in mammals and birds. Enterococci are also found in soil, plants, and water. Normally, you do not find E. faecalis in water but there are other species of Enterococci that have been found in water due to contamination. Often from feces. E. faecalis is considered an assorted species because it mingles with many different organisms and has an effect on the environment. Some of the ways that E. faecalis can be transmitted in the environment are by various insects and animals. House flies are a good example of how the bacterium is transmitted because where they live there are live microbial communities present. Normally they are found around...
The disease, cholera, is an infection of the intestines, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. As stated in Microbes and Infections of the Gut, the bacterium is “a Gram-negative, comma- shaped, highly motile organism with a single terminal flagellum” (105). Cholera is characterized by the most significant symptom that presents with the disease, diarrhea, and victims can lose up to twenty liters of body fluids in a day. Cholera can be a serious disease, due to the serious dehydration that can occur, but it is only fatal if treatment is not administered as soon as possible. This research paper includes information on the causes of cholera, symptoms, ways of treatment, studies of treatments, complications that may occur, the tests and diagnosis for cholera, and finally, the ways the cholera bacterium may be transmitted.
Some micro-organisms, such as Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum, cause far more serious illness than vomiting or diarrhea. They can cause spontaneous abortion or death.
The actual, theoretical, and percent yield of sodium chloride was found. Sodium Carbonate was mixed with hydrochloric acid and the liquid was boiled until there was nothing left. The result was the production of salt, or sodium chloride.