C. diff spread 'fast and easy'

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20631344


Clostridium difficile causes diarrhoea - elderly people taking antibiotics are particularly vulnerable


Two closely-related strains of Clostridium difficile became antibiotic resistant and were able to rapidly spread to hospitals around the world, a study says.

Researchers were able to show how the bacterium travelled by forensically analysing its genetic code.

The strains of the hospital infection seemed to become more severe after they became resistant.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Genetics.

[xchrom]

1. Drug-resistant C difficile bug traced to source in US and Canadian hospitals

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/09/c-difficile-traced-us-canada


Stoke Mandeville hospital, where C difficile killed more than 30 patients when it broke out twice between 2003 and 2006. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA

A lethal drug-resistant bug that spread rapidly around the world and killed tens of thousands of people has been traced to hospitals in the US and Canada.

British researchers used powerful genetic techniques to reconstruct Clostridium difficile's route as it circled the globe, and identified four separate waves that brought the bug to Britain. In all but one instance, the pathogen crossed the Atlantic.

The detailed map of the epidemic shows that two highly virulent strains emerged independently in North America after the pathogens evolved resistance to a frontline antibiotic in wide use at the time.

The genetic sleuthing demonstrates the extraordinary information that scientists can glean from the DNA of infectious organisms. Within the next few years, rapid and real-time surveillance of pathogens is expected to become standard practice.

[Warpy]

2. The wost outbreak I ever saw was in an ICU

and was finally traced to the body of the electronic thermometer, something that was never in contact with a patient. Oddly enough, the electric blood pressure machine came up clean.

C-diff is really nasty but the cure for drug resistant C-diff is even nastier, it's a shit/bacteria enema, the shit donated by a healthy person.

I could diagnose C-diff on the floor before I got off the elevator. That's how nasty it is.