Healthcare Infections: C. difficile kills three times as many people as MRSA. But a counter offensive is moving on from UK
19/07/2007 15:22
Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency show there were 55,681 cases of Clostridium difficile infection reported in patients aged 65 years and above in England in 2006
A research group led by Professor Nigel Minton in the Centre for Healthcare Associated Infections (CHAI), with Dr Peter Mullany at University College, London received over £1.6m for one of the country's largest studies into C.difficile (C. diff). The work funded by the Medical Research Council, follows a scientific breakthrough by CHAI microbiologists that is set to revolutionise the genetic analysis of Clostridium difficile and its close relatives. The "ClosTron" system can target specific genes in C. difficile and other clostridial species and, for the first time, we have an extremely rapid and effective way of identifying and deactivating the toxins and other factors that cause the disease and can begin the search for new therapies to prevent or cure it.