by William J. Beerman, Sr.
I’ll be attending the 2018 Peggy Lillis Foundation (PLF) National Clostridium Difficile (C. diff) Advocates Summit on Monday, April 9, at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, in Washington, DC.
The summit will be streamed live on Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST. You can register at tiny.cc//2018summit. The summit will offer training for new and experienced advocates with presentations and panel discussions featuring leaders in C. diff prevention and treatment, healthcare policy, state government, patient advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
On Tuesday I’ll join other summit participants who will go to Capitol Hill to provide information about C. diff to federal legislators and staffers. One government policy issue is that C. diff is often omitted as a cause of death on death certificates, and PLF would like to have guidelines established to ensure it is recorded when appropriate.
PLF points out that C. diff is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in healthcare settings. It caused nearly 500,000 infections in one year, and 29,000 deaths. In nursing homes, the infection interferes with residents’ rehabilitation therapy and recovery as it causes uncontrollable diarrhea, fever, nausea, abdominal cramping, dehydration, loss of appetite, and death in some cases.
The disease, which can be triggered by administration of antibiotics, was a major cause of the demise of my mother, Mary Regina Beerman, who died in 2011 after a short stay in a nursing home.
More information is available at the Peggy Lillis Foundation Website, https://peggyfoundation.org/ or its Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/PeggyFoundation/
@peggyfund’s 2018 #cdiffsummit