Mom, your kid has just come down with the Runs-from-Hell and you are without medical insurance, so what do you do? He needs hospitalization, but incredibly enough, it was probably hospitalization of Junior’s aunt that gave him what he has in the first place! Your kid picked up C-diff, an infectious diarrhea, during his visit to her in the hospital!

Diarrhea bacteria common in hospitals: survey

According to the the American Journal of Infection Control,

“Antibiotics don’t kill it and most germicides used for environmental cleaning don’t kill it. Only bleach does,” and by the time patients are diagnosed, they have had a day or two to contaminate their rooms and everyone who has had contact with them.

This study gives a really low undercount of this problem, too, since most facilities are not doing the testing and do not have the awareness about this disease that they should have. One big cause of the problem is the simple misappropriation of funds away from hiring enough nursing assistants to do decent care of the elderly in US hospitals and nursing homes. The money flows to the top reaches into the hands of people who do little to no actual hands-on work caring for the elderly and sick. I’m talking about insurance companies and all the administrative layers they create to pilfer funds away from the actual care givers themselves.