New drug able to fight off deadliest superbugs

A POWERFUL new drug that fights one of the deadliest hospital superbugs could soon become available in Scotland.

Thousands of NHS patients are expected to benefit from the treatment which doctors say is the most effective drug yet in tackling Clostridium Difficile (C Diff), which kills hundreds of Scots each year.

The drug, Dificlir, is a new antibiotic that has proven successful in treating patients with the infection. The Scottish Medicines Consortium, the watchdog body which approves drugs for the NHS, will announce whether doctors have the go-ahead to prescribe the tablet in July.

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C Diff is the most prolific superbug in Scotland, striking thousands each year.

Trials show Dificlir is more effective than traditional antibiotics at preventing relapses among C Diff patients – a common problem affecting one third of sufferers. And in some patients, such as those with cancer and those taking other antibiotics, it is also more effective in curing C Diff than current treatments.

The development has been welcomed by medical experts and patients’ groups, who say they hope it will help clear Scotland’s hospitals of the superbug altogether.

Professor Robert Masterton, director of the Institute of Healthcare Associated Infection at the University of the West of Scotland and an expert adviser to the drug’s manufacturers, said: “This is the first major step forward in C Diff drug treatment in the last two decades.

“C diff has a high relapse rate with one third of patients who get it falling ill with a second dose. This in turn is associated with prolonged hospital stays, an increased risk of death and a considerable burden on NHS budgets.

“This new treatment reduces the relapse rate by 15 per cent and offers a major step forward in combating the prevalence and impact of this disease.”

C Diff is a bug that causes severe stomach upsets. The bacteria are present in the guts of many healthy people, but can multiply quickly when the normal bacteria are killed – a common side effect of antibiotic treatment – and cause severe diarrhoea. It was implicated in the deaths of 270 Scots last year.

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