The truth about drug-resistant superbugs sickening hospital patients is even worse than what the headlines suggest. That's the same reason more common infections also spread from patient to patient in hospitals, causing 100,000 deaths a year. As many more common hospital infections become drug-resistant, going into a hospital will be too unsafe unless hospitals clean up. Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, is the most prevalent infection and kills nearly 30,000 Americans a year -- mostly hospital patients. Yet hospital infection rates are higher here than the national average, according to the state Department of Health.