New antibiotic aids fight against recurring C.diff
A NEW antibiotic could help stem the spread of a notorious hospital bug by preventing recurrent infections, research suggests.
Clostridium difficile, which mostly afflicts people with weakened immune systems, is a significant problem in hospitals and nursing homes and up to a quarter of patients affected become re-infected within a month of being treated.
Now an international study has suggested a new drug, fidaxomicin, works as well as the “gold standard” treatment vancomycin but more than halves the rate of recurrent infections in the four weeks after recovery, from 26.9% to 12.7%.
Consultant microbiologist Professor Rober t Master ton, from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said: “This new treatment, fidaxomicin, offers a major step forward in combating the prevalence and impact of this disease.”
The bug hit the headlines in Scotland in 2008 after 55 patients fell ill and 18 died during an outbreak at the Vale of Leven hospital in West Dunbartonshire. A public inquiry is under way into the outbreak. A separate outbreak at Ninewells hospital in Dundee claimed the lives of five patients.
Cases of C Diff rose slightly in the first quarter of 2011 in Scotland, with 378 cases of infection in patients aged 65 and over, although this was still the second lowest number of cases since figures were first compiled in 2006.
Participants in the study, which is published in the Lancet Infections Diseases journal, were randomly assigned to either the fidaxomicin or vancomycin treatment groups and their progress charted.
Researchers found that 91.7% of participants given fidaxomicin achieved clinical cure at the end of the treatment period compared with 90.6% of those given vancomycin.
However, they also found that fidaxomicin was 14% more likely to confer a “sustained response” – that is, patients taking fidaxomicin were less prone to relapses in the 28 days after recovery.