Re: C. difficile resistance and clindamycin


rebecca wrote:
> i had one of these c. difficile infections when I was first diagnosed,
> after a few weeks of rocephin...not very pleasant. and then I had to
> take a fecal sample into the lab at the local hospital. it looked just
> like a frosty from wendy's.
>
> as long as I'm on the subject, I've been wondering whether the US ever
> developed biowarfare agents which resembled one of those 48 hour
> intestinal viruses. a couple of years back, one of my friends became
> very ill with a GI tract infection of some sort which presented with
> agressive explosive diarrhea accompanied by vomiting leading to dry
> heaves, confusion, and a high fever. it spread to everyone in his
> family, and then I came down with it a few days later and it spread to
> everyone in my family. this was around christmastime, so we immediately
> labeled it "christmas disease". it occurred to me that for a period of
> 48 to 72 hours, this disease was totally disabling, and appeared to be
> extremely infectious. a perfect biowarfare agent - just spray it on the
> front lines, wait a few days, and roll over the trenches. I doubt the
> enemy combatants could manage much resistance while they were
> simultaneously spewing vomit and diarrhea all over each other. of
> course we'd need to protect our own soldiers with a vaccine or
> protective gear.

and no proof that any germwarefare existed. even if our guys get
infected 2-3 days they'd be fine again. yep, sounds good in theory.

thinking about the first biowarfare program, was it smallpox and giving
infected blankets to the indians?

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