U.S. health authorities alert the public to potentially fatal bacteria that may be contracted in clinics and doctor's offices.

The Centers for Disease Control says the bacteria, scientifically known as C. difficile, usually hang about in hospitals, but a study made public on Wednesday reports a significant number of individuals who caught the bug ruled out being in a hospital, but they had been to a dentist's or doctor's clinic.

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The center warns people infected with the bacteria may suffer a deadly form of diarrhea and sounds the alarm on rising infections.

Recent data show almost half a million Americans got infected in different locations in a year, with around 15,000 dead due to C. diff.

In a study two years ago, scientists discovered that C. diff was creeping about in six out of seven doctor's clinics in Ohio, with samples found on patients' examining tables and chairs.

Disease control officials are so concerned that are beginning a new study to determine whether people are contracting C. diff in doctors' clinics across the nation.

A medical epidemiologist at the CDC, Dr. Cliff McDonald, said the bacteria spread is an important matter and doctors have to understand better how patients are getting infected with the bacteria.

While the study is underway, patients are advised to wash their hands after being treated at doctor's offices -- with water and soap because sanitation gels could not get rid of C.diff.

The CDC published its study in The New England Journal of Medicine. The article said 150,000 people who were never near a hospital got infected with C. diff in 2011.

Of those patients, 8 in 10 had been to a dentist's or doctor's office in the 12 weeks while they were being treated.

The center is raising the possibility the new study will eliminate cause-and-effect factors, because it was possible the patients had been infected with the bacteria to start with and had gone to their physicians to get help.

It was also possible that the prescription of antibiotics, and not microbes at the doctor's clinic, led to the infection.