Dangerous tie between popular antacids and deadly infection

By Deborah Schoch,  CHCF Center for Health Reporting | October 15, 2012   Combing through the files of C. difficile patients, St. Joseph’s Medical Pharmacy resident Wei Wang was surprised to discover that an overwhelming number of them were consuming certain antacid drugs that made them more susceptible to the dangerous infection.  Last summer, a young pharmacy resident named Wei Wang began combing through the electronic charts of patients at St. Joseph’s Medical Center who had been diagnosed with Clostridium difficile, one of the nation’s most dangerous health care-associated infections.  Searching for common threads, Wang discovered that many of the infected patients at the Stockton hospital were on a type of antacid pill that is believed to make people more vulnerable to C. difficile, the infection’s nickname.  Read more