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Australian scientists are a step closer to eliminating one of the most common hospital-acquired infections, which can be fatal. Glen Carter and Dena Lyras at Monash 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ have found a gene that controls toxin production in the bacterium Clostridium difficile , one of the most common causes of hospital acquired diarrhoea.

"Identifying the regulatory gene is the first step towards understanding it. It gives us an extra target to work with to try to shut off the toxins that cause infection," Dr Carter said. They will now look at how the toxin is produced.