VIDEO: Importance of early diagnosis, treatment of Clostridioides difficile infection

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Oftentimes a common scenario I see is that a patient presents with diarrhea and if the correct history is not obtained — the patient recently got a course of antibiotics, for example — many patients will tell me that they were told to take Imodium (Johnson & Johnson) or that it may have been something that they ate. And oftentimes weeks will go by before appropriate testing is actually ordered.

In special populations, like patients with inflammatory bowel disease, it’s pretty well-established that if a patient calls with worsening symptoms, you always should be checking for C. diff first and foremost. In certain populations that happens more regularly, but in a general population, I think certainly there can be delays and we know that then the patients ultimately can get sicker and suffer for longer.