Medical experts have warned Australia must act to avoid an outbreak of a deadly new superbug strain.

The warning from the Medical Journal of Australia says the first case of an epidemic strain of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) thought to have been seen in the country has been detected in three patients at Melbourne's Epworth Hospital in February last year.

Further clusters have been reported in aged-care facilities last November.
The bug since 2000 increasingly has been detected in facilities in North America and Europe.

Monash Medical Centre director of infectious diseases Rhonda Stuart said the infection now rivalled golden staph (Staphylococcus aureus) as the most common healthcare-associated infection in the US.

"We must learn from the experience of experts in these countries," Monash Medical Centre Department of Infectious Diseases' Dr Rhonda Stuart said in an editorial published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia.

''It is sobering to contemplate that what has occurred in the US, Canada and Europe is potentially and imminently on our door,'' she said.

"We have the benefit of their hindsight. Australia is now also in the grip of this new strain of C. difficile. It is sobering to contemplate that what has occurred in the US, Canada and Europe is potentially and imminently on our doorstep."

Dr Stuart said Australia's challenge was to implement the necessary interventions, including reduced antibiotic use and stringent infection control.

The Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases has published its guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of C. difficile.

They include stool tests for anyone who develops diarrhoea after a course of antibiotics or while in hospital, and treating patients with metronidazole in mild to moderate cases and vancomycin in more severe or recurrent cases.