Anuja.Jaiswal@timesofindia.com
New Delhi: You could be car
rying a dangerous gut bacteri um without even knowing it and in hospitals, this hidden risk could prove deadly Clost ridioides difficile often strikes after the use of strong antibio tic medicines, which disturb the balance of “good bacteria” in the gut. Once it takes hold, the bug can trigger severe di-arrhoea, colon damage, or even life-threatening illness.
A new study published in JAMA Network, based on electronic health records from Sheba Medical Center in Israel, tracked more than 33,000 hospital stays invol ving 23,000 patients. Resear chers found that patients car rying the bacterium without symptoms were far more lik-ely to develop serious infec tions during admission, re gardless of antibiotic use. In other words, silent carriers had a much higher baseline risk of hospital-onset infec tions compared with non-car riers.
Satinder Duggal
