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Clostridium difficile infection
Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming
bacterium which is most commonly 'caught' through the
mouth, especially after taking a course of antibiotics.
It is not the antibiotics, which cause the infection,
but rather the antibiotics weaken the defence of the
'good' bowel bacteria, therefore permitting C.difficile
to implant in the bowel so initiating all the symptoms
it can cause eg diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal
pain.
Treatments for C.difficile
infections generally include metronidazole (Flagyl),
vancomycin rifampicin, bacitracin, cholestyramine, Saccharomyces
boulardii, Lactobacillus GG, and immunoglobulin. These
treatments are initially seem successfulas symptoms
improve, but a large percentage of patients experience
a recurrence of symptoms eg diarrhoea after completing
treatment. It is believed that this is due to the normal
'good' bacteria in the bowel not being strong enough
to eradicate the persisting bacterial spores.
If all standard medical therapies fail, recolonising
of the bowel using human faecal probiotics has been
widely reported to be successful in eradicating clostridium
spores. This is now the recommended therapy of last
resort in many publications. Please publications listed
in the Physician Section to find more information.
Medical therapies are widely available from most Physicians.
The PTRC focuses particularly on cases where other therapies
have failed. HPI has successfully eradicated C difficile
and its spores and to date it is the only consistently
successful cure for relapsing C difficile infection.
Normal human faecal flora 'good bacteria' appears to
have the capability of permanently eradicating C.difficile
spores - a treatment not able to be matched by any other
currently known treatment. It probably achieves this
through production by healthy bacteria of products similar
to known antibiotics, but unique in that they can eradicate
spores. Using this therapy the averaged cure rate from
all published papers approaches 90-95%.
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