(Undark) – When I was at medical school, we students loved to characterize bacteria as villains, the better to revel in how to thrash them with antibiotics. Lately, though, C. Diff has become a virtuoso at resisting treatment. As our pharmacological prowess has waned, we’ve had to confront a paradox, which is that while some individuals suffer debilitating symptoms, 1 in 10 of us are able to host it in our gut with absolutely no ill effects. 

What really determines a patient’s outcome is the background environment of their gut. The precise chemical milieu that renders some patients vulnerable is almost always the result of having been treated for another infection with antibiotics. Yes, it’s that crazy. The gold-standard therapy for C. diff is the selfsame class of drugs that causes the condition in the first place.  (Read More)