Signs and symptoms include watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, loss of appetite, and dehydration. Other complications include colon perforation, necrotizing enterocolitis, neutropenic enterocolitis, and pseudomembranous colitis.

Antibiotic-associated Diarrhea: Signs and Symptoms

The bacteria produces two toxins: C. difficile toxin A (TcdA) and C. difficle toxin B (TcdB) which inactivate GTP-binding proteins. This inactivation causes actin condensation, cell rounding, and eventually cell death.

Antibiotic-associated Diarrhea: Virulence Factors

Clostridium difficile bacteria is gram-positive, rod-shaped, and part of the normal microbiota of the body. Disruption of the normal microbiota causes overgrowths of the bacteria. Bacteria can survive for extended periods.

University of Notre Dame

Diarrhea caused by C. difficile overgrowth due to with long-term antibiotic use

Antibiotic-associated Diarrhea

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