Elkhart nursing home employee contracts clostridium difficile infection
Posted by Administrator (admin) on May 06 2009 at 7:00 PM
Clostridium difficile Infections >>

A certified nursing assistant (CAN) at Golden Living Center was diagnosed with C-DIF (clostridium difficile) on Sunday.

The 26-year-old employee, who wants to remain anonymous, initially thought it was a bad case of the flu. But it turned out to be something more serious. According to a family member, he lost 20 pounds in the last few weeks. The family believes that the disease could have been prevented.

C-DIF is not common among young people. It generally affects old people with weakened immune systems. So, the family members have questions. Generally, C-DIF is spread through bacteria in the feces of infected people. The family assumes that a patient at Golden Living Center might have passed on C-DIF. They believe that the patient was not appropriately quarantined at the time of their illness.

“My biggest concern is that I know some of the people that work at the nursing home. Those young adults have been exposed to this. I know that they were told that there wasn’t any of this, you don’t expect a young adult to get something like this,” said a family member.

C-DIF made the employee hospitalized for several days. He is home recovering now.

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that is one of the most common causes of infection of the large bowel (colon). C. DIF has now been recognized as the major cause of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) diarrhea in the US and Europe.