Talking the language of genes

Health - Jonathan Wood | 02 Feb 11. The majority of hospital cases of Clostridium difficile at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford are not caused by transmission of the bug within the hospital, so early results of a new project suggest. It was one example used by Professor Peter Donnelly last night, in giving the first Oxford London Lecture at Church House in Westminster, to illustrate how the modern revolution in genetics is already beginning to affect healthcare for us all. The research, carried out jointly by researchers at the University and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals through the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre , uses the latest genomic screening technologies to identify DNA variations present in the C difficile bugs causing the infection. It works as a kind of 'genetic fingerprinting for germs', explained Peter Donnelly, allowing the researchers to trace whether the same bug has been transmitted between patients. C. difficile can cause infections that lead to diarrhoea and fever, often after antibiotics have been used to treat other health conditions, and can be serious or life-threatening. Significant efforts have been made by the NHS to reduce cases in hospitals and numbers have come down.