Scientific hope in superbug threat

SCIENTISTS studying the workings of a potentially fatal superbug have made a huge breakthrough that they hope will help identify patients most susceptible to infection.

Researchers at Dublin City University (DCU) believe their studies on how the human body responds to the bug known as Clostridium Difficile (C difficile) — responsible for twice as many deaths in the UK as MRSA — will ultimately lead to huge advances in prevention and treatment.

“Essentially the recent research has identified the mechanism by which your immune system recognises the bug and this may provide vital information about the susceptibility of certain patients to infection, as well as shedding light on why some people recover quickly and others — particularly the elderly and the immunocompromised — develop a long chronic illness,” said Dr Christine Loscher, School of Biotechnology, DCU.

Dr Loscher said C difficile — a healthcare-acquired infection (HCAI) — is on the increase in Irish hospitals. However, the absence of a national surveillance system to monitor the bug means it is difficult to track infections. A study last year of the rates of HCAIs among 7,500 patients found the overall rate in Ireland was 4.9%, meaning roughly one in 20 patients acquires such an infection.

Patients who had had recent surgery, those on ventilators and people requiring intravenous lines or urinary catheters were most at risk.

Dr Loscher said it was a matter for concern that a number of “really virulent strains” of C difficile had recently been identified in countries such as Britain and Canada.

She said their findings in relation to the manner in which the body responds to the component parts of the C difficile bug “could be seen as a major breakthrough”.

“It is the first study to show how the immune system responds to key components of the bacteria. From our point of view, it’s an important bacteria, it affects a lot of people in hospital and any information that gives us a better insight into how the bacteria works is significant. This research significantly increases our knowledge about how this bacteria initiates infection and subsequent inflammation in the colon,” said Dr Loscher.

The symptoms of C difficile range from mild illness to life-threatening colitis. C difficile is the most common cause of diarrhoea following antibiotic therapy. An expert advisory group on C difficile, set up by the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year, is expected to make recommendations on tackling the superbug later this year. Earlier this year, Dr Kevin Kelleher, director of population health with the HSE, said HCAIs could not be fully eradicated from hospitals. Only a third are preventable according to Dr Robert Cunney, consultant microbiologist at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

The C difficile research — carried out in collaboration with Professor Dermot Kelleher, consultant gastroenterologist at St James’s Hospital and Head of School of Medicine TCD — will be presented today as part of the annual conference of the Irish Society for Immunology at DCU.

Other research to be presented at the conference will cover a wide range of diseases including asthma, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis and autoimmunity.