Preventing the spread of clostridium difficile

Hand-washing with soap and water is important in stopping the spread of Clostridium difficile - for staff, patients and visitors.

Careful hand-washing after using the toilet and before handling food and drink helps prevent the spread of the infection.

If you need any more information or want to learn about Clostridium difficile, you may find the useful links page helpful.

Treatment of clostridium difficile

The treatment depends on how severe the diarrhoea is.

Sometimes it will settle without treatment, especially if the patient has finished their course of antibiotics.

If the patient is having frequent episodes of diarrhoea, then they maybe given different antibiotics, which will treat the infection.

Usually the diarrhoea symptoms start to settle after one to five days.

To protect all our patients, the Trust acts immediately a case is suspected.

We do not always wait for laboratory confirmation.

A patient with any diarrhoeal symptoms is cared for in isolation to protect the other patients on the ward.