As absurd as it may sound, the lethal Clostridium difficle infection has actually been treated with a dosage of C. difficile. How is that possible now? Well the doctors in the United States have replaced the aggressive version of the infection with more jovial ones in the family.
The trials had taken place on 173 patients and it was found that the probability of repeat infection had dropped drastically. The paper has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
- difficile infections are responsible for diarrhea and fever and are a big problem in hospital all around the world, with about 29,000 deaths associated with this bug annually in the U.S. alone.
The start so far looks promising and according to experts the bacteria will be able to take over the gut when a course of antibiotics will kill off the bugs which usually reside there.
The symptoms are caused by toxins that the bacteria discharge. Therefore the ream at Loyola University Health System in Illinois tried to give their patients non-toxin producing C. difficile spores. What happens then is that the friendly bacteria occupies space in the gut which the toxic C. difficile in general inhabits and prevents it from returning.
It was demonstrated in the trial that the healthier bacteria took hold in the gut about 69% of the time and with this number, 1 out of every 50 people faced that infection once more. In the meantime, 1 out of 3 people had renewed symptoms when the bacteria are unsuccessful to inhabit the gut or if they had been given a dummy treatment.
Dr Dale Gerding, one of the researchers at Loyola University Health System said, “C. difficile infections are the most common hospital-acquired infection that we have, it is a big problem. What we’re doing is establishing competition with the original, toxic strain. I’m excited about this and looking forward to a phase-three [larger]trial, we think it’ll go a long way to reduce C. diff recurrence.”
They also aim to give spores to the ones who are on their way to an antibiotics course so that C. difficile never makes them ill again. Another technique for treating C difficile infection is through faecal transplant and it being recognized by people more and more these days. The healthy gut buds are usually collected from a relative’s stool and then given to patients.
“It is an interesting idea; it is a less grim version of a faecal transplant and a very interesting concept to block infection. They are still infected with bacteria, but they are a friendlier version. This paper established the proof of principle, but what they need to do is find out exactly how you can use it.” said Dr Simon Clarke, from the University of Reading.
ViroPharma Incorporated has funded this study and it is now a part of the biotech firm Shire.
Benzamin H
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