Clostridium difficile infection may be increased by painkillers

These C. difficile organisms were cultured from a stool sample obtained during an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, and extracted using a .1µm filter. Credit: CDC/ Lois S. Wiggs People treated with antibiotics are at heightened risk of having clostridium difficile infection as those drugs disturb the microbial balance of the gut. Clostridium difficile infection causes the most common and most dangerous hospital-born infections in the US and across the globe. People treated with antibiotics are at heightened risk because those drugs disturb the microbial balance of the gut, but observational studies have also identified a link between severe clostridium difficile infections and use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Understanding the severity of clostridium difficile infection The researchers followed two groups of antibiotic-treated mice for one week after infection with clostridium difficile. One group had been treated with an NSAID called indomethacin prior to infection, and the other hadn’t. Only about 20% of the mice treated with the NSAID survived to the end of...