• Posted October 20, 2025

Deadly Diarrhea Germ Targets White Patients, Study Says

An opportunistic bacterial infection that causes deadly diarrhea is more likely to kill white patients than Black or Hispanic people, a new study says.

About 84% of deaths caused by Clostridioides difficile infections occur among white people, researchers reported in Atlanta Sunday at IDWeek, the joint annual meeting of America’s top infectious disease professional societies.

By comparison, Black patients account for 8% and Hispanic patients under 6% of deaths, researchers found.

The study also found that C. difficile infections are more likely to kill urban dwellers, with 84% of deaths occurring in and around metropolitan areas.

“C. diff’s prevalence in health care settings flips the usual dynamics of privilege: Those who can afford more access to health care are more likely to die from infection,” researcher Dr. Muhammad Sohaib Asghar, a resident physician at AdventHealth Sebring in Florida, said in a news release.

“The United States must double down on progress made in lowering C. diff-related deaths by promoting responsible antibiotic use — particularly in health care settings — to address disparities,” Asghar said.

C. difficile infections occur mainly among people who’ve taken a heavy dose of antibiotics. People are up to 10 times more likely to get a C. difficile infection while taking an antibiotic or during the three months afterward, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Antibiotics can damage or even wipe out a person’s gut bacteria. C. difficile takes that opportunity to invade the gut, causing diarrhea and inflammation of the colon.

For the new study, researchers tracked more than 216,000 deaths related to C. difficile infections that occurred in all 50 states between 1999 and 2023, using CDC data.

C. difficile deaths peaked between 2006 and 2015, driven by emerging antibiotic-resistant germs that required heavier doses of antibiotics to cure, researchers said.

People in health care centers were especially susceptible, with 71% of deaths occurring among hospital patients and 21% among people in nursing homes, long-term care facilities or hospices.

C. difficile deaths were higher among women than men, with women accounting for nearly three-fifths (58%) of deaths.

IDWeek is the joint annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about C. difficile.

SOURCE: IDWeek, news release, Oct. 19, 2025