This dangerous bacterium can be infected anywhere. A symptom of frightening pain

Clostridioides (formerly: Clostridium) difficile is a dangerous bacterium that can, in extreme cases, cause rupture of the intestine. It causes very severe abdominal pain as well as green, flowing stools. Most often, we become infected with it in hospitals, but not only. When antibiotic therapy fails, you can transplant a bacterial flora specially prepared from donors from the intestine – the so-called microbiota.

1. The bacterium is killed primarily with selected antibiotics. If treatment is not successful, a gut flora transplant is needed
2. Patients have watery diarrhea, very intense abdominal pain, high fever
3. In Poland, the procedure of transplanting the bacterial flora from the intestine has been carried out since 2012. The method was already known to the Chinese
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Clostridioides difficile — co to za bakteria?

Clostridioides (formerly: Clostridium) difficile is an anaerobic bacterium that shows the ability to move. It causes diseases of the digestive system, often also damage to the intestines, and in extreme cases leads to their necrosis and perforation. Her case of infection with the bacterium was described in an interview with the HR by clinical dietitian Dr. Hanna Stolińska.

– At the beginning of December, a high fever appeared, almost 40 degrees Celsius. Additionally, strong diarrhea – in the case of Clostridium, the characteristic is an intense greenish color of the stool, its unpleasant smell, and severe abdominal pain. They were so shocking that the doctors at the HED thought that I came to them with a perforation of the appendix and I developed peritonitis. In addition, I was weakened and my whole body hurt, which was related to the high inflammation that developed in the body. Doctors also diagnosed intestinal obstruction – admitted Dr. Stolińska.

We most often get infected with the pathogen in a hospital, but this is not the only way. The bacterium produces the so-called spores (spores) that occur everywhere in the environment, even, for example, on potatoes fertilized with natural fertilizer.

– Most often, however, we get infected from another sick person. The place is however arbitrary, although I admit that the most common infection occurs in hospitals – said Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski in an interview with Medonet, an expert of the Supreme Medical Council on COVID-19 and a pioneer of the method of bacterial flora transplantation in Poland.

Why is the bacterium dangerous?

Ekspert wyjaśnił, że to groźna bakteria, bo wytwarza kilkanaście różnych toksyn. Niszczą one jelito do tego stopnia, że na wywołane przez patogen zapalenie można nawet umrzeć.

– The bowel ruptures and a hole is made through which intestinal contents pour out into the peritoneum. A man dies – explained Dr. Grzesiowski. He also added that following the rules of hygiene may not be enough, because each of us can have this bacterium in the digestive tract. It can become virulent at some point.

– In some people, after receiving an antibiotic, this bacterium ‘goes crazy’ and starts producing toxins because it treats the antibiotics as an attack. He begins to defend himself. So you can be a carrier of a strain that did not hurt us until we received the antibiotic – said the expert.

Treatment is the first antibiotics

The bacterium is first killed with a special antibiotic. Here, metronidazole and vancomycin are most often administered. Dr. Grzesiowski emphasizes, however, that these drugs often do not provide a XNUMX% cure. The bacterium is coming back.

— Bakteria ta ma jeszcze dodatkową cechę — tworzy w jelicie biofilm. Jak pozwolimy jej się zagnieździć, to tworzy warstwę śluzu, w której ten antybiotyk nie zadziała. Całe leczenie wtedy staje się nieskuteczne — przyznał ekspert.

Intestinal flora transplant

One method of treating this bacterium is intestinal flora transplant (FTM). It consists in administering the bacterial filtrate, examined at all angles, from the stool of a healthy person (expressed food debris) through a colonoscope into the large intestine or with a gastric probe. Most often, people with recurrent ailments are qualified for such a procedure. A minimum of two or three treatments. It is estimated that it is about 15-30 percent. patients. This procedure, despite the fact that it is still often treated as experimental, has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Healthy people’s stool suspension (“yellow soup”) was given to people in the Middle Kingdom suffering from severe diarrhea. This method returned to favor in the last century.

– This is a transplant of microbiota obtained from the feces of a healthy donor. Please don’t get confused here. This is not a stool transplant. The stool is filtered, the food debris is centrifuged off, and the bacteria are obtained and suspended in the neutral fluid. The preparation resembles, say, the consistency of rare cocoa, explained Dr. Grzesiowski.

Obtaining material (microbiota) is often problematic. For one patient, a mixture of two or three donors is prepared so that the composition is as rich as possible. The donor may not be, for example, a vegetarian.

– People who eat different types of diets have a changed microbiota. Food is a fertilizer for bacteria and if you limit it somehow, it will not contain all the necessary bacteria – explained Dr. Grzesiowski.

Microbiota – What is it?

Our small intestine is inhabited by 500 to 1500 species of microorganisms: viruses, bacteria and fungi. They help digestion, maintain the body’s balance, mediate the production of vitamins and enzymes, and support the fight against pathogens and cancer. When the body becomes ill, the environment of microorganisms becomes poorer, and pathogenic bacteria begin to dominate in the intestines. Then the transplantation of the bacterial flora often becomes the only way to restore the balance, i.e. homeostasis.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to ecology. How to be eco and not go crazy? How can we care for our planet on a daily basis? What and how to eat? You will hear about this and many other topics related to ecology in the new episode of our podcast.