A bacteria called Clostridium difficile, often referred to as C. diff, is potentially deadly and infects up to half a million people living in America every year. The numbers of people infected have doubled between 2000 and 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.

The infection was responsible for more than 29,000 deaths in 2011, and all of them died within 30 days of getting infected. About one-third of the deaths occurred in people older than 65.

The bacterium grows within the colon, causing a possible deadly diarrhea. Although most of the infections are from a recent stay in the hospital, the symptoms are often only seen after a patient leaves. About 150,000 other cases have been found to have occurred in people who were not in a hospital, but about 82 percent of them had visited a doctor’s office, or a dentist’s office, within the previous 12 weeks.

Once the infection is detected, it can usually be dealt with by giving the patient antibiotics. The bacteria, however releases toxins which can greatly damage the colon, often leaving doctors with no choice but to remove it.

Even when the infection has been cured with antibiotics, it is not easy to bring the right balance back to the colon, which enables the infection to reoccur. The regrowth of the C. diff bacteria occurs in one out of five cases. In Canada, a study recently found that cutting back on the use of antibiotics in general has helped reduce C. diff infections by 10 percent.

The CDC is very concerned about this rise in the number of people outside of hospitals getting C. diff. They will be looking into how it is getting into the community and conducting further studies on whether or not people are getting it from doctor’s offices, or if it is because of antibiotics.

Dr. Peter Pronovost from Johns Hopkins advises you to ask your doctor if giving you an antibiotic is necessary. Less powerful ones are recommended if it is strong enough to treat the problem, and for the shortest time necessary.

One measure that seems to be helping to treat people who would otherwise have died from C. diff infections is fecal transplants. Although new, it seems to have worked so far in about 94 percent of C. diff patients.