MRSA Notes

C. difficile keeps coming up in my day today, I think it is because I have been thinking about the change in focus for October on the Superbug Wiki. I read on the ADVIN web site Christine Besson’s article titled C. difficile: a superbug?, and I became interested in knowing why this was often grouped with the other superbugs (including on my web site!) when in actuality, by definition, it is not a Superbug.

Most of the answers could be found right in Christine’s article. By definition, a Superbug is a bacterium that has mutated in such a way that it is resistant to commonly used antibiotics. This is true of all of the other Superbugs, but not so of C. difficile. However, C. difficile has mutated and become more toxic, and therefore more of a problem. C. difficile is also a nosocomial infection, like many of the other Superbugs, and is spreading like wildfire, at epidemic proportions, throughout the world. Like the other Superbugs. I am keeping C. difficile on the Superbug Wiki for these reasons, and maybe we can call it something different- how about Super “bad” bug?

The Wiki Monthly Focus will be changing in the next couple of days, so if you have something to contribute to Superbugs, C. difficile and/or the MRSA page, now is a great time to do it.

Hope your day is going great! I am enjoying the dramatic cool down in Texas–for the last 3 days we have had record breaking heat (106 F), and it is now to a cool and delightful 80 degrees F.

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