If you are dealing with health issues regarding an older member of your family you will want to know about an expanding outbreak of a drug resistant bacteria:

According to one of the studies, a new, virulent and resistant strain of the bacteria Clostridium difficile broke out in eight US hospital centers between 2000 and 2003.

Provoked by antibiotics inside the intestines of hospital patients, the bacteria showed an ability to mutate and increase its resistance to drugs, the report said.

Moreover, the bacteria, which infects the colon causing severe diarrhea and colitis, a severe inflammation of the intestine, has begun showing up in patients not taking antibiotics or visiting hospitals.
Symptoms include watery, malodorous diarrhea and cramps.

A second study of 1,703 patients in 12 hospitals in Quebec, Canada, demonstrated the lethality of the bacteria.

Over 13 years the incidence of the bacteria grew fourfold in Quebec, and in 2004 it caused the deaths of 117 people in the first month after they were diagnosed. All of the victims were elderly.

It is not necessarily deadly. If detected, the proper responses can be used to increase survival. My experience is a misdiagnosis is what causes the most risk, because precious time is lost going down the wrong path. Don’t blame the doctors without reason, there are lots of sources for these kinds of symptons. Simply watch out for the possibility of this agent being the part of the situation.