An antibiotic could help stem the spread of a notorious hospital bug by preventing recurrent infections, research suggests.

The Clostridium difficile (C. diff) bug, spread by poor personal hygiene, mostly afflicts people with weakened immune systems and is a significant problem in hospitals and nursing homes. Up to a quarter of patients affected by C. diff infection become reinfected within a month of being treated.

The antibiotic, fidaxomicin, works as well against C. diff as the “gold standard” treatment vancomycin, the study showed, but compared with vancomycin, it more than halved the rate of recurrent infection from 26.9 per cent to 12.7 per cent. The phase three trial led by Prof Oliver Cornely, from University Hospital Cologne in Germany, compared 509 patients who were either given vancomycin or fidaxomicin.

Commenting on the findings published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, consultant microbiologist Prof Robert Masterton said: “Sadly, CDI remains a common problem in modern clinical practice . . . CDI naturally has a high relapse rate and this in turn is associated with prolonged hospital stays, an increased risk of death and a considerable burden on NHS budgets.

“This new treatment, fidaxomicin, offers a major step forward in combating the prevalence and impact of this disease.”

The trial did not look at preventing infection with a new strain of C. diff.