By comparing the genetic code of batches of C. difficile, researchers can work out how related different batches of C. difficile are.
The new killer bug C. difficile has flourished because older antibiotics killed off the healthy bacteria that normally live in the intestine, clearing the way for toxic C. difficile to take over.
In adults, C. difficile infection is associated with diarrhea and unpleasant side effects, and while babies don't seem to be as affected by the bacteria, the presence of C. difficile could push out the Escherichia and Shigella that are so critical to developing a strong and healthy immune system.
And last year deaths from C-difficile went up in Wales, but fell sharply in England.
We're making real progress against MRSA but the war against another infection, C-difficile, must be intensified.
BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Alan Johnson's speech in full
At least 90 patients died at Maidstone Hospital between 2004 and 2006 in a C.difficile outbreak.
It is also developing fast tests for two other troublesome bugs, C. difficile and resistant enterococcus.
Numbers then explode, C. difficile dominates the gut and masses of toxins are produced.
There were 2, 053 C. difficile infections last year, compared with 2, 704 the year before.
The new bugs multiply rapidly and take over the lower intestine, driving C. difficile away.
When C. difficile bacteria overwhelm the gut, it can be fatal and difficult to treat with antibiotics.
He showed in 2002 that feeding hamsters nontoxic bacteria was 90% effective at holding off the bad C. difficile strains.
If they do this while not killing off the C. difficile, it can return with a vengeance.
But rates for C. difficile, which mainly strikes the elderly, rose by 2%.
The US Centers for Disease Control say C. difficile is linked to 14, 000 deaths in the US each year.
Prof Brendan Wren, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has been studying C. difficile for 25 years.
C. difficile bacteria live in many people's guts alongside hundreds of other species - all fighting for space and food.
Nicola Sturgeon was able to report that the incidence of the two most prominent infections, MRSA and C.difficile, were both coming down.
However, a strong course of antibiotics can kill off C. difficile's competition.
They were caused by a once rare variant of C. difficile which has become the most common cause of the infection in North America.
She again refused to set up a public inquiry into the outbreak of C.difficile at the Vale of Leven hospital while the police investigation continues.
The trust said C.difficile affected less than one in every 1, 000 patients admitted to its hospitals and in almost every instance it was caused by antibiotic use.
Liz Morgan-Lewis, a spokeswoman for the HPA, said it was hard to know how prevalent the new strain of C.difficile was, because comprehensive data was not available.
This, they said, was contributing to hospital infections such as C. difficile and MRSA, and was a particular problem in geriatric wards, as bugs "spread more quickly between elderly patients".
Though faecal transplantation for C. difficile has still to undergo a formal clinical trial, with a proper control group, it looks a promising (and cheap) answer to a serious threat.
We are trying to check out the statistics on C-difficile but, for the moment, over to Cardiff Bay, where a Welsh government source says Mr Lansley has said all this before.
Professor Brian Duerden, chief microbiologist at the Department of Health, said in July 2005 they called for more accurate reporting of infections such as MRSA and C. difficile on death certificates.
The Health Protection Agency reported in November 2007 that rates of C. difficile infection may be levelling off with the number of new cases down 7% to 13, 660, while MRSA cases are falling.
The bacteria, known as C. difficile, causes about 500, 000 infections and 30, 000 deaths a year in the U.S., mostly among people in hospitals and the elderly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
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