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. 2018 Mar 7:11:1178633718758023.
doi: 10.1177/1178633718758023. eCollection 2018.

Recent Progress for the Effective Prevention and Treatment of Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection

Isobel Ramsay  1 , Nicholas M Brown  1 , David A Enoch  1
Affiliations

Recent Progress for the Effective Prevention and Treatment of Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection

Isobel Ramsay et al. Infect Dis (Auckl). .

Abstract

Recurrence occurs in approximately 25% of all cases of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and poses a unique clinical challenge. Traditionally, treatment options of CDI have been limited to regimes of established antibiotics (eg, pulsed/tapered vancomycin) but faecal transplantation is emerging as a useful alternative. In recent years, promising new strategies have emerged for effective prevention of recurrent CDI (rCDI) including new antimicrobials (eg, fidaxomicin) and monoclonal antibodies (eg, bezlotoxumab). Despite promising progress in this area, obstacles remain for making the best use of these resources due to uncertainty over patient selection. This commentary describes the current epidemiology of rCDI, its clinical impact and risk factors, some of the measures used for treating and preventing rCDI, and some of the emerging treatment options. It then describes some of the obstacles that need to be overcome.

Keywords: Recurrent Clostridium difficile infection; bezlotoxumab; faecal microbiota transplantation; fidaxomicin; risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests:The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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