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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Journal of Gastrointestinal Infections 2022; 12(01): 073-075
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1757606
Patient Education

Patient Education: Clostridioides difficile Infection

Ryan Pardi
1   Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, United States
,
Sahil Khanna 
1   Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, United States
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What Is C. difficile Infection?

C. difficile infection or Clostridioides difficile (formerly known as Clostridium difficile) infection also referred to as “C. diff” is a bacterial infection of the colon (large intestine) that infects millions of adults and children worldwide every year.[1] Clostridioides difficile is a bacterium that can be found throughout the environment and its spore form can be very difficult to clean and eradicate on surfaces. This infection is typically spread when people accidentally touch areas contaminated by the spores of this bacterium and unknowingly ingest these spores. Upon exposure to these bacteria, patients with risk factors get infected as the bacterial spores germinate and produce toxins that lead to the symptoms of C. difficile infection ([Fig 1]).

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Fig. 1 The progression of Clostridium difficile infection (available for public use at no charge by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/cdiff/pdf/Cdiff-progression-H.pdf, Accessed on February 18, 2022).

Ethical Statement

Not applicable.


Ethical Statement

Not applicable.


Author Contributions

R.P. wrote the initial draft and S.K. revised it. Both authors approved the manuscript.


Data Availability Statement

There are no associated data.




Publication History

Received: 18 January 2022

Accepted: 17 February 2022

Article published online:
22 September 2023

© 2022. Gastroinstestinal Infection Society of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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