The Burden of C. difficile and its Link to Nosocomial Infections

Introduction

Medical Illustration of C. difficile http://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff-patient.html

Clostridium difficile infections are the leading cause of hospital-associated infections (HAIs), or nosocomial infections, in the United States. The infections are becoming increasingly serious, and the presence of hypervirulent strains are causing epidemics estimated to cost the USA healthcare system approximately $3.2 billion annually (22). This breaks down to $3,006-$15,397 per episode (23). These new strains are resistant to fluoroquinolones, and produce more spores and toxins than what has been studied historically (22). It is important to study this bacteria, as it is becoming an increasing risk to public health. The Center of Disease Control is working to prevent C. difficile infections by incorporating its State Antibiotic Resistance Programs across the country, with a goal of reducing the number of incidences of infection by half (26).

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Types of HAI

Include some current research in each topic, with at least one figure showing data.

Clostridium difficile as a Leading Cause

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Toxin Production

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Genetic map of PaLoc and CDT locus in C. difficile. Arrows denote the direction of transcription. Toxin genes are shown in green, and regulator genes in red. http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0966842X1100196X/1-s2.0-S0966842X1100196X-main.pdf?_tid=77e5bb16-e7ad-11e4-8275-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1429569475_da85a2645d2046d4eb2278f4c889fe9a

Strains and Identification

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Comparison of PCR-ribotyping using newly developed primers that closely surround the rRNA operon, versus primers used in older literature. Lanes 1, 6, and 10 are 100-bp mass markers. Lanes 2, 4, 7, 9, and 12 show the results using new primers, next to Lanes 3, 5, 8, 10, and 13 which use primers from older literature (18). http://femsle.oxfordjournals.org/content/175/2/261.figures-only

Treatment

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Prevention

Overall paper length should be 3,000 words, with at least 3 figures.

References

[Sample reference] Takai, K., Sugai, A., Itoh, T., and Horikoshi, K. "Palaeococcus ferrophilus gen. nov., sp. nov., a barophilic, hyperthermophilic archaeon from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 2000. Volume 50. p. 489-500.

Edited by student of Joan Slonczewski for BIOL 238 Microbiology, 2009, Kenyon College.