A small study by researchers in Spain finds that dangerous germs are lurking on playgrounds. [1]
For the study, a team of scientists tested sandboxes and searched for Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. They found it alright, and it was the drug-resistant variety.
Doctors and researchers are in a race against the clock to find new antibiotics and alternatives to antibiotics as the problem of drug-resistance worsens and spreads. One bacterial superbug in particular which has researchers especially worried is Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile – a bacterium which can cause fatal infections in hospitals and nursing homes.
Going to the bathroom has deep meaning in the Netherlands – now that its first “poop bank” has opened.
The Dutch Donor Feces Bank (NDFB) is open for business at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), bringing new reason and meaning to relieving oneself. The bank was set up in an effort to reduce the prevalence of infection by Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, bacteria in the human digestive tract.
A single course of antibiotics can cause Clostridium difficile, or C. diff – a bacterium that can lead to a condition known as Clostridium difficile colitis – to flourish in the gut, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.
The discovery was made during experiments with mice. The scientists say the antibiotics were found to kill off bacteria responsible for altering bile acid.
Antibiotics have always been a double-edged sword. Yes, they kill what would otherwise be a harmful and sometimes deadly bacteria, but they also kill off the good bacteria in the gut, which allows harmful gut bacteria to proliferate. Now, scientists say they’ve found a way to disarm those dangerous gut bacteria without killing the helpful kind in the process, at least when targeting one type of bacteria.
