Getting to Know The Symptoms of Clostridium Difficile

When talking about diseases, most people associate them to harmful bacteria. Our immune system has enough population of good and bad bacteria. Often, the good bacteria play a very important role to keep us healthy for many days. Bad bacteria are responsible for our getting sick. One of the popular types of bad bacteria is the Clostridium difficile.

What Are Clostridium Difficile Bacteria?

Clostridium difficile bacteria often reside in the intestine. When their population increases in the intestine of the victim, they become aggressive causing damages on the linings. If the person becomes neglectful about his health condition, he may develop some complications that would even lead to colon troubles and cancers.

The Causes

Medical doctors prescribe their patients to maintain the intake of antibiotics when they suffer from severe diseases. Those antibiotics can make the C. diff. spores strong to cause damages in the intestine. Aside from antibiotics, surgeries may also lead to having complications brought by Clostridium difficile.

The Environment

Medical experts tell that our body contains C. diff. However, if the number of our good bacteria is greater than the population of the C. diff, there is nothing to worry about. Health experts consider places from which people can get C. diff. bacteria. Those are hospital areas like:

• Intensive Care Units

• Nurseries

At home, the places from which C. diff. bacteria are encountered include:

• Toilet room. This area has a lot of C. diff bacteria because the stools are often kept there.

• Living room. Make sure to clean your couches or sofas and other forms of furniture. You can get the bacteria while touching those items.

• Bed room. This area is used very personally. When you do not keep this area clean, you may also encounter C. diff. bacteria.

Preventive Measures

The health experts often remind about proper sanitation practices at home. These include:

• Frequent and proper washing of hands. This must be done after using the toilet and before and after taking your meals or snacks.

• Household chores. Do your household chores religiously. You can do away with C. diff. once all areas at home are clean.

• Minimize going to nurseries and intensive care units. When you have a weak immune system, do not touch any item from nurseries and intensive care units to lessen the acquisition of diseases.

The Symptoms

Before seeing your doctor, you need to consider some symptoms that would give you an idea if you had contamination of C. diff. Among the symptoms are:

• Fever. High fever is expected for the person who had suffered from severe complications but low fever for mild cases.

• Loss of appetite. When getting C. diff., the person usually is not interested to take any food.

• Weight loss. This symptom appears consequently due to appetite loss as well.

• Diarrhea. Water diarrhea is experienced within three days to more than one week depending upon the severity of the case.

What Must Be Done?

The people need to be vigilant when it comes to health. Proper sanitation practices must be frequently observed to avoid complications of C. diff. bacteria and other forms.