{"id":1006,"date":"2019-07-11T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:04:21","slug":"the-secret-superpower-that-makes-c-difficile-so-deadly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/the-secret-superpower-that-makes-c-difficile-so-deadly\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Superpower That Makes C. Difficile So Deadly"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_529\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-529\" class=\"size-full wp-image-529\" src=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq.jpg\" alt=\"Researcher Mahmoud Saleh and William Petri Jr., MD, PhD.\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq.jpg 250w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/bims\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/390\/2019\/07\/Petri-Saleh_smsq-70x70.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-529\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Researcher Mahmoud Saleh and William Petri Jr., MD, PhD.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new discovery about dangerous\u00a0<em>C. difficile<\/em>\u00a0diarrhea has identified a new way that the bacteria \u2014 and possibly others like it \u2014 cause severe disease.\u00a0<em>C. diff\u00a0<\/em>is the most common hospital-acquired infection and estimated to result in 453,000 cases per year, with 29,300 associated deaths.\u00a0 The new finding from the University of Virginia School of Medicine explains why certain patients are highly susceptible to C. diff infections, provides doctors with a way to predict disease severity and points to a new way to treat the often-deadly condition. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2019\/04\/190423133613.htm\">Read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new discovery about dangerous\u00a0C. difficile\u00a0diarrhea has identified a new way that the bacteria \u2014 and possibly others like it \u2014 cause severe disease.\u00a0C. diff\u00a0is the most common hospital-acquired infection and estimated to result in 453,000 cases per year, with 29,300 associated deaths.\u00a0 The new finding from the University of Virginia School of Medicine explains [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-highlights","tag-delete"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Secret Superpower That Makes C. 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