WAMC New York News
(2010-08-30)
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University of Michigan campus, Ann Arbor, Michigan
(photo by Steve Carmody, Michigan Radio)
Hospital and nursing home patients are especially vulnerable to Clostridium difficile - or, C-Dif, for short.
Some people develop severe gastrointestinal problems, others suffer from diarrhea.
U-M infectious disease professor Vincent Young says a $7.5 million federal grant will be used to study why the bacteria is so prevalent.
"We want to know if it's differences in the patients, or the C-Dif strain they're infected with, or potentially does it have something to do with all of the other bacteria that inhabit our GI tract," Young says.
Young says people often get C-Dif after being treated with antibiotics.
He says the spores are stubborn: They can live on curtains and carpets.
© Copyright 2012, Michigan Radio
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