Studies have shown that clostridium difficile colitis infects more than 500,000 Americans every year. Many deaths have happened due to the severity of this infection. Over the last few years, this infection has become increasingly common among people.

One of the main reasons for the increase in this infection is that it is contagious and due to the lack of personal hygiene with low immune health of people. Antibiotics also are the main and most common cause of this infection. The intestines in a human’s body has about 100 trillion bacteria cells with about two thousand varieties. These bacteria, known as the good bacteria, help the body fight infection. When one consumes antibiotics to treat an infection, the good bacteria also gets killed in the process of removing the bad ones that cause infection(s). Without healthy or good bacteria, C. difficile takes control and creates another infection called clostridium difficile colitis.

The treatment for clostridium difficile colitis may include another antibiotics, but these are to stop the C. diffilice bacteria from growing and creating more trouble and complications. There are medicines that are prescribed by the doctor for the cure but not all medicines have been approved by FDA, however, even the unapproved ones are effective. Most antibiotics for the cure are oral medicines.

In some severe case, surgery seems to be the only option to treat the infected person. The severity is that of an organ failure, excess pain in the abdomen, toxic megacolon, or even inflammation in the lining of the abdominal wall. The surgery is done to remove the diseased portion of the colon so the infection does not infect any further.

Another form of treatment that is relatively new in the medical field is called Fecal microbiota transplant. This is the procedure where a stool transplant is done to cure recurring infection in many patients. Here the donor’s stool is carefully examined for any infections, parasites, and viruses and then transplanted into the patient to replace the infected feces with the one with good bacteria. Success rate for this method is higher than 90 percent.

Probiotics is also used to treat this infection. These are bacteria and yeast that help restore a healthy balance in the intestine.

The only way to prevent this infection from happening is by maintaining high immunity by eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining utmost hygiene especially in medical centers.