Investigate national Clostridium difficile figures since 2007. Discuss possible reasons for any trends and compare and contrast - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... It was named ‘difficile’ because of the difficulty in culturing the bacterium on conventional media. The life cycle of the bacilli begins in the spore form. In unfavorable circumstances, they produce spores to allow them to live survive the poor living conditions outside the human body, such as bedding, furniture, medical equipment, as well as skin and jewelry of caregivers, so they can thrive once inside a new host. Upon ingestion, it germinates and colonizes the colon. At this point in their lives they also produce exotoxins A and B. The genes that encode these toxins, tcdA and tcdB, are regulated by tcdR and tcdC. All of these are found at the pathogenicity locus (Martinez, Leffler and Kelly, 2012). Pathophysiology of Infection Since the bacterium’s population is regulated by other microorganisms in the gut, oral intake of antibiotics that disturb these protective microorganisms can facilitate the pathological reproduction and toxin production of C. difficile, causing antimicrobial-associated, self-infection (Department of Health and Health Protection Agency, 2008). ...Download file to see next pagesRead More