After a rise of C. difficile cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started tracking lab testing for C. difficile in counties in 10 states in 2009. From 2009 to 2010, about a third of C. difficile cases happened outside the hospital, according to the report. Forty percent of patients with community-acquired C. difficile required hospitalization.
C. difficile infections are usually tied to the use of antibiotics, but 36 percent of infected people nationwide did not take any antibiotics in 12 weeks before the infection.
According to the report, the rise of community-acquired C. difficile could be tied to having contact with recently hospitalized patients and spores found in water sources and in meat processing plants.
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