Could Probiotics Be Useful in the Fight against C. difficile Infection?

​Probiotics may be a "safe, simple, and low-cost" solution to preventing Clostridium difficile infections in hospitals, according to research released on April 26, 2018, by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. The results were published in a pair of studies in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. One study was a meta-analysis of 18 controlled trials, including patient data for 6,851 participants, comparing probiotic prophylaxis for C. difficile with placebo or no treatment. The study suggested with moderate certainty that probiotic prophylaxis was a "useful and safe" prevention strategy for C. difficile, particularly for participants taking two or more antibiotics and in hospital settings where the risk of C. difficile infection was 5% or higher.