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C.difficile cases reported at Lakeshore General

Outbreak contained

Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, June 5, 2008

Two elderly patients died last week at the Lakeshore General Hospital as the hospital battled and contained a c.difficile outbreak.
“They both had c.difficile but that was not the cause of their deaths,” said hospital spokesman Louis-Pascal Cyr last week, explaining that one patient, who died May 25,  was suffering from a terminal illness and was under “comfort care” and the other patient, who was 100 years old, died May 26.
Cyr said the hospital was able to detect the outbreak and stop it in less than a week – a far cry from a few years ago when 101 cases of c.difficile causing six deaths were recorded at the Lakeshore General from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005, a period in which a virulent strain of c.difficile was circulating in Quebec.
“We took serious measures back then and the numbers of patients infected with the bacterium dropped quickly,” Cyr said, adding that the number of infected patients dropped to 40 and no deaths due to the bacterium were reported between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006.
Since then outbreaks of c.difficile have been few.
Some of the measures taken to control c.difficile infections at the Lakeshore General included the hiring of a second infection prevention and control nurse, training all personnel and improvements to housekeeping and sanitation equipment.
As well, any person who goes to the hospital with complaints of diarrhea is automatically put into isolation until tests ensure that person is not infected with c.difficile.
Cyr said seven patients tested positive for the c.difficile bacterium May 23 in the hospital’s 4-West medical unit.
“We immediately closed the unit, isolated the patients in the ward, 44 people, and worked to combat the outbreak,” he said.
“There was great team co-ordination; the maintenance staff, orderlies, nurses, nursing assistants, doctors and other professionals all worked together. And as of (last) Thursday, we were clear and able to reopen the unit.”
Cyr said it is now rare that patients die from c.difficile as medical staff now spot it early and know what to do.