Clostridium Difficile News and Research

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Clostridium difficile is a type of bacterium found in human and animal waste. Clostridium difficile is a common cause of diarrhea that occurs in hospitals. It can also cause diarrhea or other intestinal disorders in patients treated with antibiotics.

HHS develops national plan to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections

Independent evaluators have found that measurable progress in reducing the rates of some targeted HAIs has been achieved under the umbrella of a national plan to prevent HAIs that was developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

24 Jan 2014

Erosive GERD treatments: an interview with Professor Joaquim Moraes-Filho, University of São Paulo Medical School

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a condition that develops when the reflux of stomach contents causes troublesome symptoms and/or complications.

20 Jan 2014

IBM and OhioHealth collaborate to aid in prevention of infections in hospitals

OhioHealth and IBM today announced a collaboration to aid in the prevention of infections using a first-of-a-kind network of wireless sensors and real-time Big Data analytics that measure hand-washing practices.

10 Jan 2014

Healthcare workers' hands contaminated with C. difficile after routine care, study shows

A new study finds nearly one in four healthcare workers' hands were contaminated with Clostridium difficile spores after routine care of patients infected with the bacteria. The study was published in the January issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

24 Dec 2013

Illinois healthcare coalition receives $7M grant to establish research network to battle chronic illnesses

Governor Quinn today announced that a coalition of 20 health and hospital organizations from Illinois has been awarded an 18-month, $7million federal award to establish a clinical data research network.

17 Dec 2013

Celgene subsidiary presents REVLIMID study results on lymphoma at ASH annual meeting

Celgene International Sàrl, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) today announced that results from two studies of REVLIMID (lenalidomide) combinations in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) were presented at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in New Orleans, La.

11 Dec 2013

MassBiologics gets FDA orphan drug designation for MBL-HCV1 antibody

MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School has received an orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for MBL-HCV1, a monoclonal antibody developed to prevent hepatitis C virus recurrence in patients receiving a liver transplant.

5 Dec 2013

C. difficile doesn’t harm infants, but serves as a reservoir to affect adults

Infants and toddlers frequently carry toxigenic Clostridium difficile, usually with no harm to themselves, but can serve as a reservoir and spread the bacteria to adults in whom it can cause severe disease, according to a study by a team of Swedish researchers published ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

4 Dec 2013

PrimeraDx gets FDA clearance for ICEPlex C. difficile Assay Kit and ICEPlex System

PrimeraDx, a molecular diagnostics company, announced today that the ICEPlex C. difficile Assay Kit and the ICEPlex System have received 510(k) clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration.

3 Dec 2013

Restoring helpful bacteria of the gut and intestines may treat patients with RCDI, find scientists

Scientists at the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and physicians at Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, MD, have found that restoring the normal, helpful bacteria of the gut and intestines may treat patients suffering from recurrent Clostridium difficile infections. Transplanting fecal matter of healthy donors into patients with recurrent C. difficile infection appears to restore normal bacterial composition and resolve infection.

27 Nov 2013

Government spending cuts within NHS increase risk of Clostridium difficile infection

72% of clinicians believe that Government spending cuts within the NHS increase the risk of hospital acquired infections. The ‘Think C-differently’ report, which advises on the current Clostridium difficile landscape, found that despite stringent measures to manage and control Clostridium difficile infection, the NHS is still battling to keep infection rates to a minimum.

8 Nov 2013

Researchers identify obesity as possible risk factor for clostridium difficile infection

Researchers from Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine have identified obesity as a possible risk factor for clostridium difficile infection. These findings, which appear online in Emerging Infectious Diseases, may contribute to improved clinical surveillance of those at highest risk of disease.

25 Oct 2013

AmpliPhi, University of Leicester partner to develop novel bacteriophage therapy against C. difficile

AmpliPhi BioSciences Corporation, the leader in the development of bacteriophage-based antibacterial therapies to treat antibiotic resistant infections, announces it has entered into Collaboration and License Agreements with UK-based University of Leicester to develop a novel bacteriophage therapy targeting Clostridium difficile, a serious gastrointestinal infection for which new treatments are urgently required.

17 Oct 2013

Researchers re-invented class of popular antimicrobial drugs by altering their chemical structures

By tinkering with their chemical structures, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have essentially re-invented a class of popular antimicrobial drugs, restoring and in some cases, expanding or improving, their effectiveness against drug-resistant pathogens in animal models.

8 Oct 2013

Swallowing pills containing fecal bacteria stops recurrent bouts of C. diff infection

Swallowing pills containing a concentrate of fecal bacteria successfully stops recurrent bouts of debilitating Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection by rebalancing the bacteria in the gut, suggests a study being presented at the IDWeek 2013- meeting today.

5 Oct 2013

Patients treated by ID physicians less likely to die in hospital

In a first-of-its-kind study to evaluate the impact of a medical specialty on patient outcomes, researchers found that hospitalized patients with severe infections such as meningitis and Clostridium difficile are significantly less likely to die if they receive care from an infectious diseases specialist. The study, which analyzed nearly 130,000 Medicare patient cases, is now available online and will be published in the December 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

30 Sep 2013

Inhibiting use of antibiotics may be more effective in reducing C.diff infection

New ways are needed to fight the infection Clostridium difficile and better use of antibiotics could be key, according to the authors of ground-breaking research.

26 Sep 2013

Study finds low doses of vancomycin to be effective in treating serious C-difficile infection

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) treatment in a hospital setting using low dose oral vancomycin showed similar effectiveness compared to high dose, according to a new study by researchers at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

12 Sep 2013

Large study shows effective test for diagnosis of C-Diff infection

The largest study of its kind has shown the most effective test for the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile (C-Diff), a bacterial infection which causes 15,000-20,000 deaths a year in hospitals in the United States.

4 Sep 2013

Study estimates total annual costs for five major health care-associated infections

A study estimates that total annual costs for five major health care-associated infections (HAIs) were $9.8 billion, with surgical site infections contributing the most to overall costs, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

3 Sep 2013