Is C. diff a superbug?
“Superbug” is not a scientific term. The CDC’s McDonald prefers to avoid it. The media originally coined the term to refer to germs that, like Superman, became bulletproof: That is, they became impervious to drugs that kill other germs. Dictionaries reserve the “superbug” designation for germs resistant to drugs that used to kill them. “Superbug” has also been used to describe germs that, like many superheroes, once were normal but become super strong: That is, they became much more virulent than they used to be. “I think if I were to use the word “superbug” I might use it to connote a particular strain or strains of a pathogen in which there has been a convergence of increased resistance to antibiotics … and increased virulence,” McDonald says. All C. diff strains are resistant to many of the antibiotics normally used to treat other infections. In fact, that’s the problem. C. diff most often strikes people whose intestinal flora have been disrupted by antibiotic treatment. But most
