C. difficile in England is on the rise, but why? A sign of a system on the edge and could a new variant push it over?

In this episode, Martin Talks to Dr Mark Wilcox OBE, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leeds, Head of Microbiology Research & Development at Leeds University Hospitals NHS Trust and National Clinical Director for Infection Prevention and Control at NHS England. We mull over the possible reasons for the increase in hospital-onset, hospital attributed cases in England, including ribotypes and antibiotic use. Given that the NHS is under great stress, we discuss the damage potential from a ribotype 955 which shares some genetic characteristics with the 027 ribotype that caused so many problems in the UK and worldwide in the early 2000s. One thing that we agree on is that reductions targets (with teeth) have been very successful in the past and should we venture in that direction again?

Information on data collection, hospital and national typing reports for England can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/clostridium-difficile-guidance-data-and-analysis#epidemiology