CDT
Infections caused by Clostridium difficile have attracted a lot of media attention recently, and have been blamed for illness and deaths within our NHS hospitals. Although Clostridium difficile related infections have been around for a long time, their frequency has increased in the last decade or so. The picture has also been complicated by the emergence of hypervirulent strains such as the 027 type that caused an outbreak at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Age and antibiotic regimen have largely been associated with the onset of the disease. However, there are other important clinical, microbiological and biological factors involved but not well understood.
Not everybody who is admitted to hospital or who receives antibiotics develops Clostridium difficile infection. We need to learn from this and identify factors that render some patients susceptible to infection. For instance, it has recently been stated that epidemic and non-epidemic strains of Clostridium difficile are genetically distinct and researchers are now pinpointing pathogenicity factors accounting for severity and relapse of the disease.
Key Contacts
To be appointed