University of Minnesota Clostridium difficile study published

Fecal Transplant Treats Serious, Recurrent Intestinal Infection
Excerpt:

Fecal transplants, using stool from a donor, have been successful at treating a serious gut infection, researchers report. The infection is called Clostridium difficile. It causes diarrhea and severe abdominal pain and kills thousands of people worldwide each year, the authors of the small study explained. It's believed that the infection overwhelms the good bacteria required to maintain a healthy intestine. The fecal transplant method was developed to treat people with C. difficile infections, particularly those who have repeat infections. Fecal matter is collected from a donor, purified, mixed with a saline solution and transferred to the patient, usually by colonoscopy. However, not much is known about the long-term stability of fecal transplants, the University of Minnesota researchers pointed out. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Microbiome, included 14 people who had recurring C. difficile infections. Four received fecal transplants. The healthy changes in the patients' intestinal bacterial populations ("microbiome") were sustained for up to 21 weeks after transplant, according to the report.

Comment: Full article of the study in Microbiome (too technical for me!). I am 837 days post Fecal Transplant

4th Century Chinese "Yellow Soup"

Comment: this is not about soup!

NYTimes: When Pills Fail, This, er, Option Provides a Cure
Excerpt:

Transplanting feces from a healthy person into the gut of one who is sick can quickly cure severe intestinal infections caused by a dangerous type of bacteria that antibiotics often cannot control.

A new study finds that such transplants cured 15 of 16 people who had recurring infections with Clostridium difficile bacteria, whereas antibiotics cured only 3 of 13 and 4 of 13 patients in two comparison groups. The treatment appears to work by restoring the gut’s normal balance of bacteria, which fight off C. difficile.

The study is the first to compare the transplants with standard antibiotic therapy. The research, conducted in the Netherlands, was published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Fecal transplants have been used sporadically for years as a last resort to fight this stubborn and debilitating infection, which kills 14,000 people a year in the United States. The infection is usually caused by antibiotics, which can predispose people to C. difficile by killing normal gut bacteria. If patients are then exposed to C. difficile, which is common in many hospitals, it can take hold.

The usual treatment involves more antibiotics, but about 20 percent of patients relapse, and many of them suffer repeated attacks, with severe diarrhea, vomiting and fever.

Researchers say that, worldwide, about 500 people with the infection have had fecal transplantation. It involves diluting stool with a liquid, like salt water, and then pumping it into the intestinal tract via an enema, a colonoscope or a tube run through the nose into the stomach or small intestine.

Stool can contain hundreds or even thousands of types of bacteria, and researchers do not yet know which ones have the curative powers. So for now, feces must be used pretty much intact.

Medical journals have reported high success rates and seemingly miraculous cures in patients who have suffered for months. But until now there was room for doubt, because no controlled experiments had compared the outlandish-sounding remedy with other treatments.

The new research is the first to provide the type of evidence that skeptics have demanded, and proponents say they hope the results will help bring fecal transplants into the medical mainstream, because for some patients nothing else works.

“Those of us who do fecal transplant know how effective it is,” said Dr. Colleen R. Kelly, a gastroenterologist with the Women’s Medicine Collaborative in Providence, R.I., who was not part of the Dutch study. “The tricky part has been convincing everybody else.”

.....

Fecal therapy has often been used to cure gut trouble in cows and horses. Books on traditional Chinese medicine mention giving it to people by mouth to cure diarrhea in the fourth century; one book called it yellow soup.

In 1958, Dr. Ben Eiseman, of the University of Colorado, published a report about using fecal enemas to cure four patients with life-threatening intestinal infections.

Comment: Missionary friend sent the article to me. I find it interesting that the concept goes back to 4th Century China. Glad I did not have to take orally! Also interesting that only 500 have been done. I was # 9 in the Park Nicollet system. About the effectiveness ... yes ... a complete cure. Consider that I was sick for 10 weeks ... thousands of dollars in pills ... 4 days hospitalized. Almost $ 15,000 in costs (although my max out of pocket threshold was $ 5000.). 7 weeks of missed work! (and that's just in 2012! I was sick for about the same amount of time in 2011!) To have a complete cure is amazing to me. I am praising the Lord and thanking my Doctor!

Two methods are mentioned in the article ... tube though the nose into the small intestine and the back door approach. I had the later.

About "yellow soup" ... that's about right .... but more like yellow broth. 1 liter of it.

Gut RePOOPulation

Fake Fecal Transplants For Gut RePOOPulation
Excerpt:

A laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria could replace human fecal matter in stool transplants to treat bacterial infections. Gretchen Kuda Kroen reports.

When normal populations of healthy bacteria in the gut get out of whack, the result can be the stubborn and recurrent bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile – C-dif. The main symptom is nearly constant and debilitating diarrhea.

One of the most successful therapies for C-dif is to repopulate the intestines with healthy bacteria that keep that nasty C-dif in check. There’s been only one way to do this: import a small sample of a healthy person’s feces.

That’s right. A poop-transplant. But the “ick” factor of fecal transplants is a hurdle for some, as well as a regulatory conundrum for the FDA.

Which is why researchers at the University Of Guelph in Canada came up with a synthetic alternative: a laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria they’re calling “rePOOPulate.”

The research is published in the journal Microbiome. [Elaine O. Petrof et al, Stool substitute transplant therapy for the eradication of Clostridium difficile infection: ‘RePOOPulating’ the gut] It’s intended to replace human fecal matter in stool transplants, and researchers say it has several advantages. The bacteria are carefully controlled and can be tailored to the patient. It reduces the risk of transmitting disease. And, well, it’s just less gross.

Comment: Very detailed article: Stool substitute transplant therapy for the eradication of Clostridium difficile infection: ‘RePOOPulating’ the gut. This is significant because it is "a synthetic alternative: a laboratory-made slurry of healthy bacteria they’re calling “rePOOPulate."

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

The "gift" of good gut flora

Introductory Comment: May be TMI (Too Much Information). I blog this for several reasons:

• For my own personal log of my struggle with C-Diff (which frankly has been a trial)
• For anyone else who has suffered with C-Diff and may stumble upon my blog and find this helpful. (For all Cold Fusion Guy posts on C-Diff click here)
• For any friends or family members who may be interested.

Well I did it .. I had the Fecal Flora Transplantation today at Methodist Hospital. My experience with Fecal bacteriotherapy is in this blog post. Wiki has a good article on Gut flora.

• The Doctor: David Stoplman
• The Donor: My son, Roger. Thank you son!
• The Process
  • Donor qualification
    • The donor had to sign various paperwork
    • The donor provided a stool sample (last Saturday) that was tested for 7 different conditions: C-Diff, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV, and other pathogens
    • This testing is not covered by insurance and my out of pocket will be $ 250
  • Prep for recipient (me)
    • Consultation with the Dr (last Thursday) and paperwork
    • Free from C-Diff (test confirmed) (see an earlier post)
    • Off drugs (I took my last Vanco Tuesday and my last aspirin on Monday (I take a baby aspirin three times a week)
    • The less than fun colon cleanse : 8 8 oz glasses last night; 7 today (I threw out the last 2-3 oz ... I couldn't take it any more. During this time I camped out by the bathroom. Kathee moved my recliner to right outside the bathroom door. Last night I camped out from 6 pm until 9:30. This morning from 7:00 am until 11 am. This stuff really works! During my "camp out" I read the Scriptures, prayed, and ran to and fro from the bathroom
  • The transplant:
    • The donor provided fresh stool to the hospital this morning. It had to be there by 10:00 a.m. and had to be fresh this am.
    • Methodist's lab processed and filtered it. The outcome was a liter of brownish / yellow fluid.
    • I arrived this afternoon and had the basic Colonoscopy. This is my third time. I had a Sigmoidoscopy when I was 50. I had a Colonoscopy at 60. And now I am 63. At my 2nd exam one polyp that was removed and tested. This time all clear - no polyps. The colon is healthy with no permanent damages from the C-Diff infection
    • The inner aspect of the Colonoscopy was a complete exam of the colon. I watched on TV. The outer (pull-out) sprayed the fecal transplant material throughout my colon.
    • Takes all of 15 minutes.! (Simple) ... followed by
    • 45 minutes in the recovery room.

I am the 9th person in the Park Nicollet system to have the procedure. Nine is my lucky number! 2012 is almost over .... 2013 will be a year of health!

An interesting thing about the scheduling of the procedure:

• I've reached the $ 5,000 out of pocket deductible for my insurance this year.
• They wanted this to be scheduled in January .. would have cost me several thousand dollars.
• I said I really really needed it to be done this month.
• The suggested December 26th. (Wouldn't Christmas have been terrible (prep work)
• But they moved things around and got me in today!

I hadn't eaten in 2 days. Yesterday was apple juice and water up to to the beginning of the prep at 6:00 p.m. Today likewise no food. Kathee made a nice dinner at my request of sloppy joes! Um good!

C-Diff and the nature of bacteria

C. diff spread 'fast and easy'
Excerpt:

The genetic code of C. difficile mutates rapidly. By comparing the genetic code of batches of C. difficile, researchers can work out how related different batches of C. difficile are. Doing this on a large scale, involving 151 samples from infections in 19 countries, allowed researchers to build up a picture of the spread of the antibiotic resistant strains.

It showed there was an strain called FQR1 which started in the US and spread across the country and to Switzerland and South Korea.

A second strain FQR2 started in Canada before spreading across North America, Europe and Australia. It entered the UK on four separate occasions.

Comment: Star Tribune article today: For human reasons, bacteria are winning Excerpt:

What makes the rapid loss of antibiotics to drug resistance particularly alarming is that we are failing to make new ones. We are emptying our medicine chest of the most important class of medicines we ever had. And the cause can be traced, for the most part, to two profound problems.

The first is economic. Historically, the drug industry thrived on antibiotics. But if an antibiotic is useful against only one type of bacterium, relatively few people need it during its patent life. And if an antibiotic is "broad spectrum," meaning it works on many different types of bacteria, wider use shortens its commercial life because it quickens the pace at which bacteria develop resistance. Moreover, antibiotics are designed to cure an acute disease -- not to palliate a chronic one -- so people need them only for a limited time. Compared with drugs that are used for years to treat widespread conditions like high cholesterol or asthma, antibiotics pale as a corporate investment.

The second challenge stems from the nature of bacteria. Though brainless, they are brainy, enjoying a highly effective collective intelligence. Large numbers of independently mutating bacteria test adaptations to group problems, like how to survive antibiotics. What works -- like modifying the bacterial proteins to which antibiotics would otherwise bind -- wins. As bacteria become more adept at evading antibiotics, it has become much harder to find drugs that can beat them back. Merge these two problems -- scientific and economic -- and the result is a drug-development disaster: The prospects are so discouraging that few companies bother to try anymore

Final comment: I am currently (and hopefully forever) C-Diff free! Image source

C-Diff update

• After weeks and weeks of drugs (starting the first week of October)
• And multiple (lost track) Doctors visits
• 4 days hospitalized (October 20th - 24th)
• Maxing out my out of pocket medical deductible for the year ($ 5,000). (I'm not complaining ... all bills are paid!)
• 7 weeks of missed work
• The lab results indicate that my innards (the hill-billy term for one's colon) are free from C-Diff
• Ahead:
  • I will be having a colonoscopy coming up (to be scheduled but I am guessing the week of 12/17)
  • My digestive system is still struggling and I am to avoid all milk products (soy milk is OK)
  • I return to work on Monday!!! Yeah!

Dificid again

Last time .... July 2011

Comment: When the Vanco doesn't knock it out ... bring in the big guns. I start tomorrow. Twice a day for 10 days! Praying that this does it! Fidaxomicin (AKA Dificid) ... by Optimer (Stock = OPTR)

Poo is a Zoo

Comment: Source of video Sounds gross but possibility.

Missing work

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction

This will be the 6th time in life I've missed work:

1. Before I was married but after I started at IBM. I had viral pneumonia and missed work for a week. I'm guessing 1973 or 1974. (started with IBM in February '73 and was married December 28th, 1974).
2. When I broke my neck on Labor Day in 1987 (September 7th, 1987). Until November 25th (Thanksgiving Eve) 1987
3. Early 1988 for a week. February. My neck surgery of the previous September did not heal correctly and it was redone.
4. I had back surgery on December 28th, 2004. It was our 30th anniversary. I was to be hospitalized for 3 days but managed to get out the next day. I missed three weeks of work.
5. I had the C-Diff infection in 2011 and missed 8 weeks of work
6. I missed all of last week of work and will start short term disability on Monday. Unclear how long this will last!

I'm thankful that my dear manager Denise and the company for which I work are so accommodating.

Out of hospital

Dehydration:

I slept in until past 8:00 am this last Saturday. My normal out of bed time can be as early as 6 or as late as 7 but 8 is unheard of. I relaxed in my ez chair while Kathee made breakfast. I sat down for breakfast  and told Kathee ... I don't feel well. I am very tired and I need help getting back to my recliner.

Kathee brought out an apple juice which I drank and then fell asleep. After noon I asked Kathee to help me back to bed. I could barely move and my legs were wobbly. I slept for several hours and my condition worsened. Kathee said that we needed to do something. I wanted to wait until Monday for a previously scheduled Drs' appointment. Ultimately Kathee called our son Roger and they muscled me into the car and took me to the emergency room.  At the juncture I could not even hold my head up or speak beyond a whisper.

Turns out that I was moderately dehydrated. I was given a liter of IV solution and was revived after that dripped into my vein. I was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Saint Louis Park

Return of Clostridium difficile:

Tests in the night reported a return of C-Diff. I had had diarrhea for three weeks but the previous test results were negative for C-Diff.

Drugs:

I've been administered liquid Vancomycin orally fur times a day since. Things improved enough that today I was discharged.

Ahead:

• I'm going to take off the remainder of the week
• I have some specialist appointments ahead
• I have 3-4 more weeks of drugs
• It is undetermined at this time whether I will return to work on Monday

Miscellaneous

Sickness:

I've been working from home for three weeks. I thought I had a relapse with my Clostridium difficile infection that I had in 2011 (January 2011 until mid August). Something's not right. I went back to the infectious disease specialist at Methodist Hospital and after tests it is NOT Clostridium difficile. So I am sick ... but not really sick. Sick enough to work from home but not that dreaded Clostridium difficile.

I thank the Lord for my manager who is very understanding. Also for VPN and a nice laptop and high speed Internet. Also for a a good cell-phone with a bluetooth head set. Otherwise I would be not working.

The BRAT diet: Stands for Banana, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. All easy to digest. So I had 2 pieces of toast for breakfast. I demanded that Kathee put some butter on them and she did grudgingly. I had rice for lunch. We have a nice rice cooker and while bland it is filling. I also had a banana today and later will have the apple sauce. Hoping that the insides settle down and I am not confined to be close to "the throne"

Thoughts on the Presidential election: (not much of a segue!)

• I thought the 2nd Presidential debate was a waste. These debates are about one-line zingers. There is little substance to them. The VP debate (other than showing that Biden is an idiot) was likewise a waste.
• I am hopeful that Romney will win. I think it is going to come down to Florida, Virginia and Ohio. If Romney doesn't win these states I doubt he will win. He needs these three and more. Real Clear Politics has a good analysis today
• In the back of my mind I have this thought that Obama doesn't want re-election. He likes to golf, he likes Hawaii, he can make a good speech that appeals to a certain audience. I think (whether in 2012 or '16) he will like being former-President Obama.

The dearth of new antibiotics

NIH superbug outbreak highlights lack of new antibiotics

Excerpt:

As doctors battled a deadly, drug-resistant superbug at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center last year, they turned to an antibiotic of last resort.

But colistin, as it’s called, is not a fancy new creation of modern biotechnology. It was discovered in a beaker of fermenting bacteria in Japan — in 1949.

... Between 1945 and 1968, drug companies invented 13 new categories of antibiotics, said Allan Coukell, director of medical programs at the Pew Health Group.

Between 1968 and today, just two new categories of antibiotics have arrived.

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration approved one new antibiotic, which fights one of the many bacteria, Clostridium difficile, causing deadly hospital-borne infections.

“What kept us out of trouble for the last 60 years is that every time drug resistance caught up to us, the pharmaceutical companies would go back to the drawing board and develop the next generation of drugs to keep us ahead of the game,” said Brad Spellberg, an infectious diseases physician in Los Angeles who heads a microbial resistance task force for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “That’s the part of the equation that’s changed. Drug companies are no longer trying to get one step ahead.”

... As a result, only four of the world’s 12 largest pharmaceutical companies are researching new antibiotics, said David Shlaes, a drug development veteran and consultant. Last year, Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug company, closed its Connecticut antibiotics research center, laying off 1,200 workers.

The company said it was moving the operation to Shanghai. But Shlaes said Pfizer is struggling to open the Chinese facility and has largely abandoned antibiotics. While a new antibiotic may bring in a billion dollars over its lifetime, Shlaes said, a drug for heart disease may net $10 billion. Depression and erectile dysfunction drugs — typically taken daily for years, unlike antibiotics, which are used short-term — are also more profitable than antibiotics.

Comment: Image Source: Clostridium difficile. Optimer Pharmaceuticals is not mentioned by name in the article but it developed Dificid (which finally ended my C-Diff infection) Also worth reading:

• CDC: Why is antibiotic resistance a food safety problem?
• Mayo Clinic: Antibiotics: Misuse puts you and others at risk

"People are dying needlessly," of C. Diff

Far more could be done to stop the deadly bacteria C. diff

Excerpt:

A USA TODAY investigation shows that C. diff is far more prevalent than federal reports suggest. The bacteria is linked in hospital records to more than 30,000 deaths a year in the United States— about twice federal estimates and rivaling the 32,000 killed in traffic accidents. It strikes about a half-million Americans a year.

Yet despite a decade of rising C. diff rates, health care providers and the government agencies that oversee them have been slow to adopt proven strategies to reduce the infections, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and illnesses that could have been prevented, the investigation shows.

... Hospital billing data collected by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows that more than 9% of C. diff-related hospitalizations end in death

Comment: USA Today article this week. C. Diff is what laid me low for about 8 months last year.

Patient dies from fecal transplant containing drug-resistant bacteria https://t.co/Hh8HXug6os via @nbcnews

— 𝓙𝓲𝓶 𝓟𝓮𝓮𝓽 (@jrpeet) June 16, 2019

Superbug fragments in drinking water?

Superbug fragments found in state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant; study done in Duluth

Excerpt:

The best-known superbug is MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which even has been found in the locker room of a National Football League team but usually picked up in hospitals. It is sometimes defeated by massive doses of multiple antibiotics, but not always.

A new superbug, Clostridium difficile, which can cause a fatal colon inflammation, now is on the rise. Two antibiotics work for that bug most — but not all — of the time. A quarter of patients relapse and some will die.

While there has been some progress in reducing outbreaks by better practices, such as careful hand washing in hospitals, the situation remains serious. Alcohol-based hand rinsers kill Clostridium difficile, but not its spores.

The increase in superbugs is usually blamed on the extensive use of antibiotics in agriculture, especially chicken and meat, and the over-prescription of antibiotics by physicians. A study released this week from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in Washington, D.C. reported an increased overuse of antibiotics in the United States, particularly in the Southeast.

The resistance problem is exacerbated by people who do not follow directions and quit taking their pills too soon.

LaPara did not look for any particular bacteria; he was searching for genes of bacteria that would have superbug attributes. The genes LaPara found came from bacteria formed in the digestive system, excreted and then sent through the sewer systems to municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Comment: Clostridium difficile pretty much defined my year up until October.

Round 5 - Dificid

7 days after my 9 weeks of Vanco (last taken on 7/16), my C-Diff returned on Saturday 7/23. I called the infectious diseases on call Doctor at Methodist Hospital and again was prescribed Vanco. On Tuesday my primary Doctor called and ordered up a 10 day supply of Dificid, a new drug for Clostridium difficile. Kathee picked it up at the hospital last night and I started on it this morning. More on below

FDA approves treatment for Clostridium difficile infection

Excerpts:

The safety and efficacy of Dificid were demonstrated in two trials that included 564 patients with CDAD that compared Dificid with vancomycin, a common antibiotic used to treat CDAD. The clinical response was similar in the Dificid group compared with the vancomycin group in both studies. In some patients with CDAD, symptoms can return. In the Dificid trials, a greater number of patients treated with Dificid had a sustained cure three weeks after treatment ended versus those patients treated with vancomycin.

“In recent years, many in the infectious disease community have seen an increase in the number of cases of people with a C. difficile infection,” said Edward Cox, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Dificid is an effective new treatment option for patients who develop Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea.”

....


Dificid was developed by San Diego-based Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The following represents how I am feeling:

I think I am healed

I think I am healed or at least 90-95% healed from my C-Diff infection that started January 3rd.

I am now on what is called the Vanco "taper" ... the using less and less of the drug.

In the most recent round, I have been on Vanco 4 times a day for four weeks. Starting yesterday:

• Starting Monday 6/6: Vanco three times a day for one week followed by
• Starting Monday 6/13: two times a day for a week
• Starting Monday 6/20: one a day for a week
• Starting Monday 6/27: every other day for a week
• Starting Monday 7/4: every third day for two weeks

If after I get off Vanco ... and after one or two weeks ... I am OK ... I will be done! Praise the Lord!

Comment: Not healed in the phony Elmer Gantry kind of way!

DIFICID approved by FDA

FDA approves new antibiotic for common hospital-acquired infection

Excerpts

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new antibiotic to treat an intestinal infection that afflicts more than 700,000 U.S. patients each year and can sometimes prove fatal.

Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Dificid tablets were approved Friday to treat Clostridium difficile, an infection that usually affects older patients and can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to potentially life-threatening inflammation of the colon. It is most common in hospitals and nursing homes where the bacteria's spores can be found in bed linens, bathrooms and medical equipment.

Clostridium difficile recently surpassed a type of staphylococcus bug as the most common hospital-acquired infection, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Optimer's twice-a-day tablet is the first new drug approved for the infection in nearly 25 years, according to the company.

In recent decades, some varieties of germs have grown immune to popular antibiotics like penicillin, creating concern about the dwindling number of new antibiotics available. The new drug, known generically as fidaxomicin, is only the third antibiotic cleared by the FDA since 2006, according to Optimer.

"When we started out, this was a relatively small segment of the market and it was not clear how a drug could be better than vancomycin," said Optimer Chief Executive Pedro Lichtinger, referring to the currently prescribed antibiotic. "But our scientists were able to see the growth of this market and the weakness of the current treatment."

In company trials, Dificid worked as well as vancomycin at treating the infection. The drug proved superior at preventing re-infection three weeks after treatment when compared with the older drug.

Comment: I am on week # 4 of my latest round of Vanco. I feel very close to completely healed

Floranex 1 million cell Chewable Tab

Comment: Latest thing I'm taking. A chewable tablet three times a day x 4 tablets. I think I am on my way for a career in pharmacy!

Floranex 1 million cell Chewable Tab

Excerpt:

This product contains the bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is naturally found in the stomach/intestines. Some conditions (such as antibiotic use) can cause problems with the normal balance of bacteria in the stomach/intestines, resulting in diarrhea. This product can help restore the normal balance of intestinal bacteria. This product has been used for diarrhea and other stomach/intestinal problems.

Comment: I have 120 ... a 10 day supply

Fidaxomicin - a promising new drug for Clostridium difficile

I am half way through my 4 week regimen of Vancomycin. I was in to see Nila Suntharam today and this is the latest:

• I have two weeks left of the Vanco (4 x a day). To continue with this
  
• To commence taking a prescription probiotic. Not sure what this is called as I haven't picked it up yet
  
• To call Dr Suntharam in two weeks to evaluate whether the Vanco should be extended.
  
• She said there is a promising new drug for C-Diff on the horizon. More information here:
  
  • Optimer Pharmaceuticals Submits Rolling New Drug Application to FDA for Fidaxomicin (September 2010)
    
  • New C. diff Drug OK'd by FDA Panel (April 2011)
    
  • DIFICID™ (fidaxomicin) (Optimer site). More on the drug below (quoted from this page)
    

Excerpt:

Fidaxomicin, our lead product candidate, is a new antibiotic with a novel mechanism of action being developed for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infection or CDI, the most common nosocomial, or hospital acquired, diarrhea. We believe that Fidaxomicin offers advantages over current treatments due to its demonstrated activity against C. difficile, low rates of recurrence, evidence of low C. difficile resistance, minimal systemic exposure, limited disruption of normally occurring gastrointestinal bacteria and convenient dosing regimen. Our studies indicate that Fidaxomicin acts by inhibiting RNA polymerase, a bacterial enzyme, which results in the death of specific bacteria such as C. difficile. We currently hold rights to fidaxomicin in all regions of the world except for Europe and certain other countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States, or CIS.

Comment: DIFICID™ (fidaxomicin) is still not available but sounds promising. Meanwhile I will be on Vanco until I am better. Thanks for your prayers!