C. difficile Gulf Coast Collaborative

UHCOP Hosts June 4 Meeting to Share Updates on Efforts of Researchers, Clinicians to Combat, Control Infectious Disease

UH College of Pharmacy will host the Saturday, June 4, meeting of the C. difficile Gulf Coast Collaborative, a multi-institutional initiative to combat and control the spread of the bacterial infection that is directly attributable for an estimated 15,000 U.S. deaths and $1 billion in excess medical costs each year.

A 2015 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, caused almost 500,000 infections among patients in the U.S. in a single year. The CDC currently classifies C. diff as one of three "Urgent" drug-resistant threats to the U.S. C. diff infection (CDI) can cause severe diarrhea and life-threatening colitis, with those most at risk including people – especially older adults – who take or have been exposed to antibiotics and have received medical care.

The CGCC meeting will be 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Flamingo Room at the UH Hilton, 4450 University Drive, on the UH Main campus. The program is free, but seating is limited; to register, contact Terry Sepulveda at tsepulve@bcm.edu or 832-824-1757.

The program's "State-of-the-Art" lectures by Loyola University Medical Center's Stuart Johnson, M.D., FIDSA, DTM&H, and University of Michigan Health's A. Krishna Roa, M.D. The program also will feature presentations by Gulf Coast region researchers such as UHCOP postdoctoral fellow Eugenia Basseres, Ph.D., and Pharm.D. student Bradley Endres, Ph.D., both of whom are conducting C. diff research under UHCOP's Kevin W. Garey, Pharm.D., M.S., FASHP, professor and chair of the college's Department of Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research.

Founded in 2012, the CGCC includes Texas Children’s Hospital, University of Texas-Houston, UHCOP, University of Texas-Arlington, University of Texas Medical Branch, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M University. The collaborative's mission is to use research funding, scholarship, and resources of the Gulf Coast states, including the Texas Medical Center, to conduct collaborative translational science to eliminate C. difficile infection.

For more information about C. diff, view the CDC Fact Sheet (.pdf) and CDC FAQ Sheet (.pdf).