Brief Answer: Clostridium difficle infection Detailed Answer: Hi Mr. XXXXXXX Welcome to health care magic. I have gone through your query and I understand that you are very concerned about repeated clostridium difficle infection. I would like to elaborate on C. diff infection and how it is caused. C. difficile is a gram positive spore bearing anaerobic bacillus that is present in the intestine of about 5%. Infection results from ingestion of spores that survives the acid environment of stomach and germinate to vegetative forms in the colon. Long-term antibiotic therapy, especially with ampicillin, clindamycin or lincomycin reduces the number of viable bacteria in the intestine but allows C. difficile to become the predominate organism in the GI tract. It occurs in up to 8% of hospitalized patients. Extremes of age, severe underlying disease, prolonged hospital stay, and living in a nursing home are risk factors. In general C. difficile infection primarily affects the hospitalized elderly patients. The common symptoms include fever, diarrhea, abdominal distension and abdominal pain. Treatment would be to stop the antibiotic causing it and if necessary metronidazole. Now coming to your specific query about C.diff in frozen food. There are chances of C. diff contamination of frozen meat and fish products. The spores of these bacteria can survive up to 71 degrees centigrade and defrosting with reheating is necessary to avoid infection. There are also chances of antibiotic use in your case which has predisposed you for the infection. Future tips: 1. As you are on antiretroviral therapy, continuous monitoring of GI infections and CD4 count very necessary. 2. Avoid canned food as much as possible, if unavoidable, make sure of packaging and expiry dates. 3. Fresh meat products is preferred. 4. Report to your treating doctor ant additional symptom you experience. I hope I have helped you with this answer. Please let me know if I can assist you further. Thanks.

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Brief Answer: C. difficle infection Detailed Answer: Hi Mr. XXXXXXX Welcome back. Canned foods are supposed to be decontaminated and processed in sterile environment, but foods may be contaminated by microorganisms at any time during harvest, storage, processing, distribution, handling, or preparation. Sources of microbial contamination are soil, air, animal feed, animal hides and intestines, plant surfaces, sewage, and food processing machinery or utensils. Clostridial spores are known for resisting the thermal processing and germinating in the canned food when they get a favorable environment. I had suggested a possibility of contamination which could have caused the infection in your case. Canned foods are not 100 percent sterile. The heat treatment given canned foods is enough to produce commercial sterility, not complete sterility. Moreover, exceptions are there for cured meats which are canned and can get contaminated while processing. I cannot comment on a particular brand in this forum. Precautions have to taken by the customer before buying the food and also checking the authenticity of the brand. I hope I have cleared your doubts. Thanks.

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