CDC Contact Information

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Bobbie
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CDC Contact Information

Postby Bobbie » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:43 pm

The following information was provided by kyles mom:

I am a community pharmacist and I have noticed an increase in C diff cases within the past year. It is also interesting to note the huge increase in "hits" this site has seen. A recent article in Annals of Surgery was written on the topic of increased fatalities from C diff. C diff is clearly on the rise. From talking to our state's epidemiologic department, C diff incidences are not reportable and therefore not tracked.

However, if everyone who frequents this site calls the CDC and tells them about our problems and asks WHY aren't they tracking it and WHY isn't the government offering incentives for pharmacuetical companies to do more research in this area...perhaps someone will sit up and take notice. Here's the main CDC number -
1-800-311-3435. I chose option number 7 from off the main menu and spoke with Evelyn.

NOTE: The phone number is changed to 1-800-232-4636.
Last edited by Bobbie on Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: updating

Bobbie
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Postby Bobbie » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:43 pm

Contact CDC-INFO

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333 USA
800-CDC-INFO | (800-232-4636) | TTY: (888) 232-6348

http://www.cdc.gov

Bobbie
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Postby Bobbie » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:44 pm

By Susanne ) on March 04, 2005


Hi Friends. Had an interesting conversation yesterday and thought you might like to hear about it. I spoke to Dr. McDonald at the CDC. He is the physician in charge of c. diff at the CDC. I told him my scenario....three people in a small neighborhood contracting c. diff within 6 months. He said this is very rare. He suspects that we have the new strain of c. diff (the Quebec c. diff). It has been identified in a hospital(s) in Pennsylvania. He said the "old" c. diff would probably not have infected three people in a community, but this is a different animal. He did assure me that although this new c. diff did kill 107 people in Quebec last year, it is still treatable. He mentioned that it is flagyl resistent (another reason to switch my son from flagyl to vancomicin).

Anyway...advised me to keep anyone away from home if they are old, ill, or on antibiotics. He said to clean well with Bleach and Clorox Clean Up. He believes that with good cleaning and time, the spores in the house will die. In the interim, I need to try to keep the other three members of my family from taking antibiotics. Ughhhhh! I do intend to call him with some additional questions. I need to know about colonization. If the bacteria has already colonized in the well members of my family, won't they just get the c. diff the next time they are on an antibiotic....even if it is five years from now. I really don't understand this. If anyone has any questions you'd like me to ask, please let me know. Bobbie...FYI...his telephone number is 404-639-3833. Wishing everyone good health!

Bobbie
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Postby Bobbie » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:44 pm

Dr. Clifford McDonald was the doctor in charge of tracking cases of C. diff. for the CDC. His E-mail address is cmcdonald1@cdc.gov. He has been promoted but is still involved in tracking C. diff.

Please E-mail rather than call him and keep your E-mails brief. To save everyone time, use the following report form. Just cut and paste, fill in the blanks, and send.

Name:

Age:

Male or Female:

Address:

Phone # & E-mail:

Length of illness:

Method of diagnosis: (toxin test, colonoscopy):

Cause of C. diff.: (name of antibiotic)

Treatment: (Flagyl, Vanco., probiotics, etc.)

Severity: (The most serious form is pseudomembranous enterocolitis.)

Health before contacting C. diff.: (Listing any pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, seizures, etc.)

Are there others in your family, school, workplace, or neighborhood that had C. diff. at the same time?

If you have questions, please keep them few and short. We don't want to lose Dr. McDonald as a contact or burden him in tracking C. diff. but instead help find answers for this unknown and frightening disease.
Last edited by Bobbie on Fri Mar 17, 2006 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bobbie
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Postby Bobbie » Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:45 pm

Here is CDC's statement on all the recent cases of C. diff. The doc. at the CDC gave me permission to put this on the site. Please, don't panic when you read this. Most of you have the "garden" type of C. diff. which will respond to normal treatments of Flagyl and/or Vanco. This statement will do a lot to help find a cure for C. diff. so look at it in a positive light.

I can factually state to you our level of concern. "Authorities at the CDC estimate C. difficile cases have increased by more than 100% relative to rates just 5 years ago (i.e. rates have more than doubled). In addition, cases are no longer confined to elderly patients in hospitals and long term care facilities as C. diff is increasingly reported among healthy young persons living in the community, often resulting in severe disease. Much of this increase in disease incidence and severity appears due to the appearance of a new, more virulent epidemic strain of C. diff responsible for hospital outbreaks in the United States, Canada, England, and, most recently, other parts of Europe. However, there may be other reasons for the changing character of this disease that are not yet fully understood. Federal public health authorities in the United States, Canada, and Europe are all very concerned about the way this disease is changing and they are actively engaged in public health research to track disease trends, understand causes for the change, and develop and implement new control strategies."

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Re: CDC Contact Information

Postby Bobbie » Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:55 pm

New CDC Report

Postby Bobbie » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:35 pm

This is a detailed report on HAI's (hospital acquired infections), including C. diff. and in-depth information on testing and why toxin tests are often inaccurate. Be sure and read so you will know what questions to ask your doctor and which tests are best. During my first bout of C. diff. (l993-l997), I only tested positive on the toxin test several times although I was diagnosed with pseudo. memb. colitis by a colonoscopy. Was also misdiagnosed at Mayo in l993 - was on Vanco. - which they knew - so tests were negative. Evidently, they didn't know then that Vanco. (also Flagyl and I'm sure Dificid) can affect test results.

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/ ... s_HCP.html

Includes good summary of C. diff. tests and other info.

I called CDC and got the following hyperlink. See the subjects on the left side of the screen for more info.

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/ ... hWrk.email

Thanks to Roy for helping me with the hyperlinks.


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