Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), a type of bacteria which often affects people who have taken antibiotics, is responsible for approximately 2,000 deaths annually in the UK.

Researchers from the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester have found C. diff is able to evolve high levels of vancomycin resistance very quickly—in less than two months the bacteria could tolerate 32 times the normally effective antibiotic concentration.

Their research is published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Identification of pathways to high-level vancomycin resistance in Clostridioides difficile that incur high fitness costs in key pathogenicity traits

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002741