This is why C. difficile mostly affects people who have been taking antibiotics, and why most infections happen in hospitals, nursing homes, or other healthcare settings. Some call it a man-made disease, associated with the very institutions that are meant to keep us healthy. It is the unintended consequence of an indiscriminate approach to killing microbes, akin to blitzing a weed-infested garden with pesticides and hoping that flowers will grow in their stead; often, you just get more weeds.33
