Cliff. the beagle, sniffs out C-Diff

Dog trained to sniff out deadly C. difficile superbug
Excerpt:

This breakthrough revolves around the efforts of a 2-year-old male beagle named Cliff. Researchers from VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam have successfully trained Cliff to detect the smell of C. difficile in both stool samples and the air surrounding patients in hospitals. By simply sitting or lying down, Cliff can easily indicate the presence of the superbug – with up to 83 percent accuracy.

Cliff’s achievements could potentially lead to better screening techniques in hospital wards, areas most at risk for breakouts of C. difficile.

“The whole problem with C. diff is it’s transmissible,” the study’s lead author Dr. Marije Bomers, a consultant internist and infectious disease specialist at VU University Medical Center, told FoxNews.com.

“If one patient has it in the ward and you don’t isolate the patient, it’s not just one patient – it’s two, it’s three, and then half your ward has C. diff. In order to try and prevent transmission in your hospital, it’s important to recognize C. diff patients as early as possible.” C. difficile is considered to be one of the most serious health care-associated infections (HAI) in the past couple of years, often affecting elderly hospital patients who have been recently treated with antibiotics. Hailed as a deadly superbug, the rise of the bacteria has been attributed to the overuse of antibiotics in hospitals, because it is resistant to most antibiotic medication.

Comment: News of the weird .... but interesting