C.diff outbreak a result of overuse of antibiotics, study finds

A study conducted by the University of Leeds, University of Oxford and Public Health England (PHE) has found that the main cause of the Clostridium difficile (c.diff) epidemic in 2006, was a result of the overuse of antibiotics.

The findings come as the Department for Health is advising GPs to reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics to patients, to stop the rise of antibiotic resistance.

The study concluded that overuse of fluoroquinolone antibiotics like ciprofloxacin meant that C. diff bugs that were resistant to the drug were allowed to thrive resulting in an outbreak of the virus.

The study outlined that measures conducted by the NHS to stem the epidemic, which caused severe diarrhoea, such as ‘deep cleaning’, were not as effective as the blanket restriction of fluoroquinolones.

Co-author Derrick Crook, Professor of Microbiology, University of Oxford said: “Alarming increases in UK hospital infections and fatalities caused by C. diff made headline news during the mid-2000s and led to accusations of serious failings in infection control.

“Emergency measures such as ‘deep cleaning’ and careful antibiotic prescribing were introduced and numbers of C. diff infections gradually fell by 80 per cent but no-one was sure precisely why.

“Our study shows that the C. diff epidemic was an unintended consequence of intensive use of an antibiotic class, fluoroquinolones, and control was achieved by specifically reducing use of this antibiotic class, because only the C. diff bugs that were resistant to fluoroquinolones went away.

“Reducing the type of antibiotics like ciprofloxacin was, therefore, the best way of stopping this national epidemic of C. diff and routine, expensive deep cleaning was unnecessary. However it is important that good hand hygiene continues to be practiced to control the spread of other infections.

“These findings are of international importance because other regions such as North America, where fluoroquinolone prescribing remains unrestricted, still suffer from epidemic numbers of C. diff infections.”