CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 22-A strain of Clostridium difficile
isolated from patients in the province of Quebec is several
times more toxic than common strains, researchers say. The
strain -- dubbed NAP1/027 -- is linked to several deadly
hospital outbreaks of C. difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in
Canada, the U.S., Britain, and The Netherlands, says Michel
Warny, Ph.D., of Acambis Inc., a vaccine manufacturer here. "To
my knowledge, there is no precedent in the literature of C.
difficile (for) a strain causing that many outbreaks in very
distant locations," Dr. Warny said. "There's also a new
phenomenon: the rate of severe disease is very high," Dr. Warny
said. "That's worrying -- it means that physicians dealing with
C. difficile cases have to be much more vigilant." For one
thing, Dr. Warny and colleagues reported in the Sept. 24 issue
of The Lancet, NAP1/027 is resistant to some of the most widely
used antibiotics -- the fluoroquinolones, such as Cipro
(ciprofloxacin). That resistance, Dr. Warny said, m