How Antibiotics Impact C. difficile rates

Gonzalo Bearman, MD, MPH, professor of medicine, and hospital epidemiologist, Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Virginia Commonwealth University, explains how controlling antibiotic use can impact Clostridium difficile rates.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“Actually, as we learn more about the control of C. difficile, it’s probably becoming more relevant to us that controlling the use or the misuse of antibiotics, will probably have the biggest impact on decreasing C. difficile [rates].

In studies that have already been published or are now coming out, when certain antimicrobials such as fluoroquinolones or cephalosporins are controlled or restricted, the rates of Clostridium difficile infection go down.

I think that’s a critically important component to a bundled approach of C. difficile.”