Serious Diarrheal Infections Among Children Caused by Antibiotics

The number of American children who face a potentially fatal diarrhea illness annually can be significantly lowered if parents and doctors were more careful about prescribing antibiotics, according to a new study.

Cases of C. difficile bacteria infections have remained at remarkably high rates ever since first discovered as a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) some years back, according to the Centers for Disease (CDC). While new practice regulations and careful preventative measures have been introduced with great success -- with most HAIs virtually disappearing in the U.S. -- C. difficile infection (CDI) rates have remained nearly unchanged in the last decade.

That is because experts from the CDC have theorized that CDI are most commonly caused by over diagnoses of antibiotics, where a number of C. dfficile bacterium are allowed to rapidly colonize unchecked after an anti-biotic kills "good" bacteria in the stomach that were previously keeping the others from forming harmful infections.

An unchecked C. difficile colony secretes dangerous toxins that poison the body and cause severe diarrhea and abdominal pain in those infected with the bacterium. According to the CDC, the bacteria hospitalize about 250,000 patients annually, resulting in nearly 14,000 deaths.

A recent study conducted by CDC investigators and published in Pediatrics set out to prove that overzealous antibiotic subscribing was behind CDIs in U.S. children.

Identifying 944 pediatric cases of CDI between 2010 and 2011, CDC researchers investigated the premise behind each infection thoroughly. What they found was alarming, with 73 percent of the infected taking a prescribed antibiotic 12 weeks preceding the infection. Most of these children were prescribed the anti-biotic for simple respiratory, ear, of sinus infections.

These latest findings help defend the CDC's latest claim that U.S. doctors are currently over-prescribing antibiotics, giving bacteria in the body more chances to develop resistance to most antibiotics available.

The study was published in Pediatrics on March 3.