Clostridium Difficile

Clostridium Difficile | | Clostridium Difficile is a Gram-positive, toxin-producing anaerobic bacterium belonging to the family Clostridiaceae of the Clostridiales. Though strictly oxygen-intolerant, C. Difficile is able to produce aero tolerant endospores under unfavorable conditions that are capable of persisting in an open environment for years. C. Difficile is a commensalist species typically housed in the colonic fecal flora of a fairly small subset of the child population, with the number of carriers decreasing as children age. [1] When it exists in small numbers, this organism remains non-pathogenic. However, when it does manage to colonize and yield larger populations, its pathogenicity becomes the root cause of a variety of colon infections. | Clostridium Difficile is a species of Gram-positive, rod-shaped, spore-forming bacteria. C. Difficile are anaerobic—lives in the absence of oxygen. In the presence of oxygen, the vegetative form of C. Difficile can survive up to 24 hours on an inanimate surface; whereas, C. Difficile spores can survive up to 2 years on inanimate surfaces that are exposed to oxygen. C. Difficile inhabits the microflora of intestines of humans. Around 3% of healthy adults and up to 70% of babies have a number of C. Difficile bacteria living in their gut. However, the number of C. Difficile bacteria is kept very low and in control by the millions of harmless bacteria in the intestines that aid in digestion. Ideal condition for growth is around 37ºC (98.6 ºF); this explains why the human body plays the perfect host for C. Difficile. [2] Cysteine, iso- leucine, leucine, proline, tryptophan and valine were essential for bacterial growth, and arginine, glycine, histidine, methionine and threonine were found to be growth-enhancing amino acids. Glycine and threonine could substitute for each other. Biotin, pantothenate and pyridoxine were essential vitamins for growth. The habitat of C. Difficile and the alimentary tract, CDMM, is