Outbreak of Clostridium difficile bacterium at hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

[Ian David]

Epidemic Hazard - North-America - Canada

10:14 AM - Show original item

GLIDE Number: EP-20070228-10114-CAN
Date / time: 28/02/2007 15:13:20
Event: Epidemic Hazard
Area: North-America
Country: Canada
State/County: Province of Ontario
City: Mississauga
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
A Mississauga hospital is investigating an outbreak of the C. difficile bacterium.

Fourteen patients have been diagnosed at the Trillium Health Centre, officials say. In the past two months, four patients showing symptoms typically associated with the bacterium have died, but the hospital says it's uncertain whether C. difficile was the cause. The hospital is taking measures to contain the outbreak, including isolating suspected patients, reminding visitors and patients about proper hand-washing and increased cleaning of patient rooms.

Clostridium difficile, also known as C. difficile, is a virulent strain of bacteria that is not uncommon, but has sparked worries among infectious disease specialists because it appears to have mutated into a highly contagious and lethal strain. The bacterium is usually picked up in hospitals and can flourish when a patient takes certain antibiotics.

In severe cases, C. difficile can cause critical illness and death in elderly or very sick patients. A coroner recently concluded that a 2006 outbreak of the bacterium at a Sault Ste. Marie hospital caused 10 deaths. Meanwhile, dozens of hospitals in Quebec have been dealing with a hypertoxic strain of the bacterium over the past four years.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&id=10114

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Someone I know contracted C. Diff while recuperating from a heart

attack in a hospital in New York State. Got it from a sponge bath with contamination in the sponge or the pan with the water (he had an IV the entire time, can't blame it on contaminated eating utensils or plates).

[Warpy]

2. One outbreak I know of in an ICU

was traced to the probe on an electronic thermometer. The probe covers had been changed each time for each patient, but the top of the probe had become contaminated, and with it the hands of everyone who used it as soon as they touched it. That's what spread the disease.

Solution? Wipe that puppy with an alcohol pad after each use.

Info about that new strain is alarming. The bugs are fighting back.

[kestrel91316]

3. It was likely the catheter that allowed the bacterium to get

a foothold.

When I was in vet school 25 years ago our ICU was having problems with a nasty, resistant strain of Pseudomonas. It was the patients with IV catheters, urinary catheters, endotracheal tubes, and other indwelling foreign material that were susceptible.