Big hospitals are breeding grounds for drug-resistant staph, pseudomonas and C. diff bacteria.
When C. difficile bacteria overwhelm the gut, it can be fatal and difficult to treat with antibiotics.
C. difficile bacteria live in many people's guts alongside hundreds of other species - all fighting for space and food.
Babies born through C-section have bacteria in their gut that more closely resembles their mother's skin microbiome, Johnson said.
The team said birth by C-section might affect bacteria in the gut, which in turn affects the way food is digested.
C-reactive protein was first discovered in the 1930s as a protein the body made in response to a sugar (the C polysaccharide) made by bacteria.
The bacteria, known as C. difficile, causes about 500, 000 infections and 30, 000 deaths a year in the U.S., mostly among people in hospitals and the elderly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The new killer bug C. difficile has flourished because older antibiotics killed off the healthy bacteria that normally live in the intestine, clearing the way for toxic C. difficile to take over.
In adults, C. difficile infection is associated with diarrhea and unpleasant side effects, and while babies don't seem to be as affected by the bacteria, the presence of C. difficile could push out the Escherichia and Shigella that are so critical to developing a strong and healthy immune system.
In the study, infants born by C-section had fewer colonies of Escherichia and Shigella bacteria than those born vaginally.
He showed in 2002 that feeding hamsters nontoxic bacteria was 90% effective at holding off the bad C. difficile strains.
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