Clostridium difficile poses a serious public health threat and potential treatments should be fast-tracked, the Food and Drug Administration stated in a newly proposed regulation.
Long-term care facilities dealing with an outbreak of Clostridium difficile have a good chance of reducing symptoms of the infection by administering probiotics, according to a recently released comprehensive review of randomized trials.
June 01, 2013
Depressed or lonely people are at increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection, according to research in BMC Medicine.
June 01, 2013
New strains of drug-resistant pathogens are targets of more scrutiny among infection control professionals employed in long-term care environments.
The Food and Drug Administration is moving to tighten regulations around fecal transplants, which research has shown to be an effective treatment for Clostridium difficile infection.
People who are depressed or lonely are at increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection, according to recently published research.
Long-term care providers might want to pay special attention to residents with certain recently identified risk factors for Clostridium difficile. These factors are chronic dialysis, recent hospitalization and use of corticosteroids such as prednisone.
Pfizer must pay $142 million for the marketing and prescribing of epilepsy drug Neurontin for unapproved uses, a federal appeals court has ruled. The justices refused to overturn a jury's previous verdict. The jury determined Pfizer marketed Neurontin for bipolar disorder, migraines and neuropathic pain. The Food and Drug Administration had not approved the medicine for any of those uses.
Stomach acid is often treated with medications such as Pepcid, but that could put long-term care residents or hospitalized patients at risk for Clostridium difficile, according to a new analysis.
People with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have a significantly elevated risk of dying from Clostridium difficile infection, according to a recent study.
Taking antihistamines such as Tagamet, Pepcid and Zantac increases the risk that people in healthcare settings will be infected with Clostridium difficile, according to a recently published study.
March 27, 2013
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology has issued an updated Clostridium difficile infections Implementation Guide.
Long-term care operators and other healthcare providers are having limited success in combating Clostridium difficile infections, despite increasing their efforts in the last three years, according to recently released survey results.
February 15, 2013
The numbers are in and they are grim. There are 165,000 cases, $1.3 billion in excess costs, and 9,000 deaths from Clostridium difficile infections that are healthcare-acquired in the United States annually.
A pair of Clostridium difficile patients were cured through introduction of a super-probiotic synthetic stool called RePOOPulate, leading researchers to express hope that the treatment can be adopted on a more widespread basis.
December 17, 2012
Finally, some good news about a Cliff. After two months of training, a two-year-old beagle named Cliff demonstrated success at being able to detect C. diff in stool samples in a lab environment, researchers in Netherlands have discovered.
November 20, 2012
If there's one topic where I feel that healthcare publications tend to repeat themselves, it's around infection control.
Researchers have hit on a potentially novel way to fight Clostridium difficile: a cocktail of six different types of bacteria.
Researchers say they nearly eliminated deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a study encompassing 50 patient rooms at two medical facilities by using a specific spectrum of ultraviolet light.
Government health officials have released a tracking tool that can help nursing homes monitor healthcare-acquired infections.
August 27, 2012
Many people shudder when they think about the 9/11 tragedy, and rightfully so. The four suicide attacks carried out on September 11 of 2001 caused nearly 3,000 deaths. But imagine if there were 10 such attacks every year and 30,000 people died. Actually, 30,000 people DO die every year, thanks to a silent killer most people have never heard of.
Some individuals are predisposed — either genetically or due to an underlying inflammatory condition — to recurrent Clostridium difficile infections, new research finds.
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking public comments on its updated action plan — which includes efforts in nursing homes — to reduce or eliminate healthcare-associated infections.
November 01, 2011
Living at a nursing home may be a predictor of whether a hospital patient dies from Clostridium difficile, a new study suggests.
People infected with Clostridium difficile were five times more likely to die if they had recently taken stomach acid medications, a new study revealed.
An experimental compound, which investigators say could be used as an alternative to antibiotics, has been shown to be effective in fighting Clostridium difficile in laboratory mice.
