Imagine someone who turns to antibiotics to avoid a possible infection after being bitten by a cat or picking up a scissor cut, little knowing that this innocent measure will activate powerful bacteria that could cause quite profound damage within his or her organism. Although it sounds quite unlikely, this is exactly how the Clostridium difficile bacterium functions.
Over the last 15 years, these bacteria have caused problems and serious injuries in the GI tracts of patients who had to take antibiotics, resulting in a major epidemiological impact in certain regions of the planet. “Clostridium difficile is a highly interesting bacterium in genetic terms, but one barely figuring in studies from Latin American countries. A number of patients began having gastric problems when they used antibiotics, but no one knew why,” explains Dr. Juan David Ramírez, leader of this research, and director of the Microbiological Research Research Group (GIMUR) within the Universidad del Rosario’s Faculty of Natural Sciences and Ma thematics.
Focusing on this issue, Dora Inés Ríos, who worked for 30 years as Professor of Microbiology at the Universidad del Rosario, carried out a literature review in 2014 alongside Prof. Ramírez, and this led to the decision to investigate this high-impact pathogen under the auspices of the University. In 2015, the GIMUR team was joined by Claudia Marina Muñoz (PhD student in Biotechnology at the National University of Colombia), who thus began her doctoral thesis. The work was to become the first study in Colombia on this microorganism, with the team identifying the infection frequency of Clostridium difficile nationwide, and also managing to describe factors that might be associated with the serious impact caused by certain strains.
According to Muñoz, contamination by Clostridium difficile can occur through contact with its spores, which are resistant to different disinfectants and can be present in hospital centers and surgical zones. Contagion generally occurs through the oral route. The bacterium’s spores inhabit the GI tract, where they remain in an inactive form and in harmony with the other microorganisms present.
“This bacterium can even be found in seven percent of completely healthy individuals, who simply do not know they have it,” she points out. Once the person consumes antibiotics, the equilibrium existing between the beneficial organisms is broken, and these bacteria activate, taking on a vegetative state and causing illness, the first symptom of which is relatively benign diarrhea. “When Clostridium damage the intestinal barrier, they cause severe problems such as perforations of the colon, pseudomembranous colitis, and toxic megacolon. If the infection is very serious, it can even result in the patient’s death,” comments Muñoz.
The major problem it involves for our health systems is its powerful resistance to a great number of antibiotics, thus limiting the treatment options and medicines that could be used against it. Only a few antibiotics have been developed to specifically attack the infection caused by this bacterium. Two years ago, it was being treated with Fidaxomicin, an antibiotic that proves efficient but which is not sold in Colombia due to its high price.