A new diarrhea danger for children

New viruses that affect human health and cause diseases come on top news after every short period of time. There is a latest research which shows that a virus which was known to effect elderly human only is also affecting children badly in US. A latest report showed that rate of children hospitalized for illness caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile increased between 1997 and 2006.

Researchers noted that the number of patients affected by C. difficile increased from 4,626 in 1997 to 8,417 in 2006, equivalent to 9% increase in each year. Researcher Marya D. Zilberberg, of the University of Massachusetts, and colleagues in Emerging Infectious Disease said that most of the children hospitalized are between the ages of 1 to 4 years.but researchers said that actual rate of C.difficile infection among new borns may be much higher because of the current recommendations against testing newborns for the germ.

Clostridium difficile is a toxic strain of bacteria that can cause serious disease in massive out breaks and is linked with growing number of hospitalizations and deaths in adults.

Increase in c.difficile infection is similar to that found among adults during the same period but it is not clear that whether this bacterium was present when the children were first admitted to hospital or whether they developed the infection when hospitalized.

In any case, researchers say the pattern of C. difficile infection is changing rapidly, and a better understanding of how this germ affects children is urgently needed