difficile infections occur in all areas of the world. About 453,000 cases occurred in the United States in 2011, resulting in 29,000 deaths. Global rates of disease increased between 2001 and 2016. C. difficile infections occur more often in women than men. The bacterium was discovered in 1935 and found to be disease-causing in 1978. In the United States, healthcare-associated infections increase the cost of care by US$1.5 billion each year. Although C. difficile is a common healthcare-associated infection, at most 30% of infections are transmitted within hospitals. The majority of infections are acquired outside of hospitals, where medications and a recent history of diarrheal illnesses (e.g. laxative abuse or food poisoning due to Salmonellosis) are thought to drive the risk of colonization. Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms of CDI range from mild diarrhea to severe life-threatening inflammation of the colon.In adults, a clinical prediction rule found the best signs to be significant diarrhea ("new onset of more than three partially formed or watery stools per 24-hour period"), recent antibiotic exposure, abdominal pain, fever (up to 40.5 °C or 105 °F), and a distinctive foul odor to the stool resembling horse manure. In a hospital population, prior antibiotic treatment plus diarrhea or abdominal pain had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 45%.
In May 2010, a total of 138 people at four different hospitals in Denmark were infected with the 027 strain  plus there were some isolated occurrences at other hospitals. In May 2010,  14 fatalities were related to the bacterium in the Australian state of Victoria. Two years later, the same strain of the bacterium was detected in New Zealand. On 28 May 2011, an outbreak in Ontario had been reported, with 26 fatalities as of 24 July 2011. In 2012/2013, a total of 27 people at one hospital in the south of Sweden (Ystad) were infected with 10 deaths. Five died of the strain 017. Etymology and pronunciation
The genus name is from the Greek klōstēr (κλωστήρ), "spindle", and the specific name is from Latin difficile, neuter singular form of difficilis "difficult, obstinate", chosen in reference to fastidiousness upon culturing. Regarding the pronunciation of the current and former genus assignments, Clostridioides is  and Clostridium is . Both genera still have species assigned to them, but this species is now classified in the former. Via the norms of binomial nomenclature, it is understood that the former binomial name of this species is now an alias. Regarding the specific name,  is the traditional norm, reflecting how medical English usually pronounces naturalized New Latin words (which in turns largely reflects traditional English pronunciation of Latin), although a restored pronunciation of  is also sometimes used (the classical Latin pronunciation is reconstructed as [kloːsˈtrɪdɪ.ũː dɪfˈfɪkɪlɛ]).