The thought of being infected with MRSA brings fear and panic to those who know how fatal the flesh-eating bacterial infection can be. Now, recent reports show that a known bacterium is overtaking numbers of MRSA infections in hospital settings, making physicians re-evaluate prevention tactics nationally and leading to a local study which may help with the creation of a vaccine to stop the spread of the illness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 28,000 people in the United States die from Clostridium difficile annually.
C. difficile is a bacterium that is naturally found inside the digestive tract, but if an overgrowth occurs, it can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Illness from C. difficile most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or in long-term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications.
"In recent years, C. diff infections have become more frequent, more severe and more difficult to treat,” says Bruce Yacyshyn, MD, a University of Cinncinnati Health gastroenterologist, adding that treatment is expensive, ranging anywhere from $4,000 to $9,000. "Tens of thousands of people in the U.S. get sick from C. diff each year, including some otherwise healthy people who aren't hospitalized or taking antibiotics.”
But now Yacyshyn is leading the local branch of a multi-center, national study to develop a vaccine that could help in preventing C. diff.
"The C. diff bacterium secretes a toxin, which is really what makes people ill, not the bacterium itself,” he says. "By purifying these toxins and introducing them into an individual’s immune system, we hope to get the body’s own immunity to recognize and fight the bacterium before it infects the patient.”
Yacyshyn says that C. diff is likely to reoccur in roughly 20 percent to 40 percent of individuals who have contracted it in the past.
"We want to see what makes this population different from the other 60 percent to 80 percent of individuals who do not have a recurrence,” he says, noting that the construction of this vaccine is similar to that of other toxoid vaccines, like tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.
The trial will look at patients who have had a recent C. diff infection prior to the introduction of the booster vaccine. Patients cannot have any pre-existing immune or inflammatory conditions, such as HIV or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
