ME hospitals battling deadly gut infection

Maine ranks second in the nation for deaths from Clostridium difficile spread in health care facilities, according to new data. Maine's mortality rate from the germ is 5.5 deaths per 100,000 people, second only to Rhode Island, where C. difficile results in 8.2 deaths per 100,000 people, according to Extending the Cure, a Washington, D.C.-based project on antibiotic resistance funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.