Diarrhea Bacteria Spread Through the Air

Diarrhea-causing bacteria spread more easily than was previously known. Not only through human feces, the bacteria are apparently able to spread through the air.

Quoted from HealthDay, Sunday (05/30/2010), this fact was revealed in a study at the University of Leeds. Review was also published in The New York Times.

The bacteria Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a trigger diarrhea, one of the most deadly infections that occurred in the digestive tract. During this time, direct contact with patients known to dirt as the only means of transmission.

Direct contact is enough easily transmit the bacteria, so always be isolated from diarrhea patients when treated by the hospital. Place of isolation must always ensure clean and sterile.

But apparently in the observation of 50 patients, the bacteria spread more easily form the more active again when the infection. C. difficile can live on the air, and landed in places that could be touched by human hands.

This is a challenge for health care places, to more accurately treat patients of diarrhea. Nosokomal control of infection (infection that occurs in the hospital) should be tightened.

Center for disease control and prevention of USA (CDC) urged hospitals to immediately isolate the patient's diarrhea. Besides isolation room cleanliness also be a higher priority.

Even so, Dr. L. Clifford McDonald of the CDC also calls for the results of this study addressed was not excessive. Apart from the isolation of patients with diarrhea have become the standard of the first, the highest contamination still occurs through direct contact with feces.