Peggy Hurt and Peg Phillips share an experience each wishes they didn’t.

The women, both from Pekin, worked together for years, and then years apart they each fought a potentially deadly form of highly contagious diarrhea.

They were both diagnosed with clostridium difficile colitis, C. diff. This used to be largely contracted in hospitals, but increasing numbers of people are contracting C. diff in the community.

Like MRSA, C. diff is resistant to many antibiotics. It is difficult for hospitals and health care facilities to fight. C. diff is transmitted by sticky spores meaning hands, hard surfaces, curtains and bed linens can be transmitters, and the spores can remain alive on surfaces for extended periods of time, even weeks, and continue to be infectious.

1. diff spores are more difficult to kill than HIV, tuberculosis, AIDS, MRSA or hepatitis, a hospital spokeswoman said. According to the CDC, half a million people contract C. diff each year and about 29,000 of them die.

Hurt believes she contracted the disease after back surgery. Phillips believes she contracted the disease after visiting a friend in a hospital.

“I was really sick, and knew I was contagious,” said Phillips, 49, a CPA and owner of Phillips Tax Service. It took about four weeks before she recovered, and she stayed out of her office for almost three weeks.

Symptoms of C. diff are explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea, dehydration and severe abdominal cramps.

“I had been on antibiotics for something unrelated. That made me vulnerable,” Phillips said.

Her analogy is that antibiotics transform a diverse and balanced gut microbiome into something akin to a freshly plowed field with all competition cleared out. The field is ready to welcome new seed and C. diff roots and flourishes.

“When I was visiting in the hospital, I probably didn’t properly wash my hands. I may have touched a surface and then touched my mouth with a cigarette,” she said.

She was fortunate she was able to recuperate at home.

Hurt, now 78, was 72 when she was infected following two operations for back surgery. After her hospital stay, she went to a nursing home for four months.

“I was stretched out on a 3-foot wide board. After each accident, I apologized to the nurses who were gloved and shielded when they cleaned up,” she said. “People couldn’t visit or touch me. I lost 54 pounds.”

Dr. Mike Cruz, president of OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, said because the C. diff bacteria is a spore and is encapsulated, it can live for extended periods of time. It is not, however, a new superbug, but it is an infection exacerbated by over use of antibiotics.

“For years, people would have a sore throat or an ear infection and ask their physician for antibiotics, but physicians must hold the line,” Cruz said. “I am critical of both the medical establishment and the public” for over use of antibiotics.

OSF and other medical institutions have stewardship protocols for regulating and monitoring antibiotic use. Cruz said it is a protocol that is continually revised and modified based on existing conditions.

OSF had a higher rate of patients with C. diff than the state average in 2011, but the hospital’s rate has declined since then with the implementation of new controls, Cruz said. He noted that part of the OSF rate is due to the fact that people with difficult-to-treat conditions in smaller hospitals are often transported to OSF.

Hospital rates of C. diff are compared using a standard infection ratio or SIR. The national average SIR for C. diff is 0.98. According to reporting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, OSF had an SIR of 1.31 in 2011. By the end of 2015, that had been reduced to 1.05. UnityPoint Health–Methodist was 0.82 and UnityPoint Health-Proctor was 0.79. Pekin Hospital was 1.82.

Tammy Cooper, RN and coordinator of the infection prevention program at UnityPoint Health, said aggressive new measures have lowered rates even further to 0.674 at UnityPoint Health-Proctor and 0.482 at UnityPoint Health-Methodist.

As soon as a patient has one episode of diarrhea, that patient is put in isolation. Test results used to take 24 hours but now the hospital gets results in just hours.

Hand washing is stressed more than ever, and the hospital has a new protocol for cleaning rooms. Following a bleach disinfectant on all surfaces including the entire bed frame, an ultraviolent machine disinfects the room, including inside drawers and under keyboards, for 45 minutes.

Cooper said when toilets are flushed, a plumb of mist rises from the bowl and can carry C. diff spores. Rolls of unused toilet paper have tested at high rates of C. diff contamination.

“Everything that is touched can harbor C. diff, an escalator hand rail, door knobs, racks of clothing in department stores,” she said.

People who are healthy can transmit C. diff without being ill themselves, especially if they come in contact with people who are on antibiotics, elderly or have weakened immune systems.