If oral vancomycin was used for the initial episode, then a prolonged oral vancomycin pulse dose of 125 mg four times daily for 10-14 days followed by a taper (twice daily for one week, then every two to three days for 2-8 weeks) or fidaxomicin 200 mg twice daily for 10 days. For a second recurrent episode, the IDSA recommends options including the aforementioned oral vancomycin pulse dose followed by the prolonged taper; oral vancomycin 125 mg four times daily for 10 days followed by rifaximin 400 mg three times daily for 20 days; fidaxomicin 200 mg twice daily for 10 days, or a fecal microbiota transplant.For patients with C. diff infections that fail to be resolved with traditional antibiotic regimens, fecal microbiome transplants boasts an average cure rate of >90%. In a review of 317 patients, it was shown to lead to resolution in 92% of the persistent and recurrent disease cases. It is clear that restoration of gut flora is paramount in the struggle against recurrent CDI. With effective antibiotic therapy, C. difficile can be reduced and natural colonization resistance can develop over time as the natural microbial community recovers. Reinfection or recurrence may occur before this process is complete. Fecal microbiota transplant may expedite this recovery by directly replacing the missing microbial community members. However, human-derived fecal matter is difficult to standardize and has multiple potential risks, including the transfer of infectious material and long-term consequences of inoculating the gut with a foreign fecal material.
Notable outbreaks
On 4 June 2003, two outbreaks of a highly virulent strain of this bacterium were reported in Montreal, Quebec, and Calgary, Alberta. Sources put the death count to as low as 36 and as high as 89, with around 1,400 cases in 2003 and within the first few months of 2004. CDIs continued to be a problem in the Quebec healthcare system in late 2004. As of March 2005, it had spread into the Toronto area, hospitalizing 10 people. One died while the others were being discharged. A similar outbreak took place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2005. The local epidemiology of C. difficile may offer clues on how its spread may relate to the time a patient spends in hospital and/or a rehabilitation center. It also samples the ability of institutions to detect increased rates, and their capacity to respond with more aggressive hand-washing campaigns, quarantine methods, and the availability of yogurt containing live cultures to patients at risk for infection. Both the Canadian and English outbreaks possibly were related to the seemingly more virulent strain NAP1/027 of the bacterium. Known as Quebec strain, it has been implicated in an epidemic at two Dutch hospitals (Harderwijk and Amersfoort, both 2005). A theory for explaining the increased virulence of 027 is that it is a hyperproducer of both toxins A and B and that certain antibiotics may stimulate the bacteria to hyperproduce.