European researchers have developed a new vaccine that has been shown to be effective in eliminating one of the most dangerous bacterial infections in hospitals and nursing homes across the globe.

A team led by the Max Planck Institute developed the vaccine to combat Clostridium difficile, a hard-to-treat gut bacterium that affects nearly 40 percent of hospital patients and kills approximately 15,000 Americans every year.

C diff is resistant to many antibiotics prescribed to treat it, putting hospital patients and nursing home residents at risk.

But the new vaccine, developed by Dr. Peter H. Seeberger and colleagues, utilizes a molecule that mimics the bacteria’s sugar coating, prompting patients’ immune systems to fight it off.

“Our findings are a very good example of how basic research into the human immune response to sugars can lead to new candidates in the fight against dangerous hospital germs,” said Seeburger.