[Sgt>Stackem]

Last Updated Mon, 21 Mar 2005 22:25:23 ESt
CBC News
TORONTO - Hospitals are failing to control antibiotic-resistant "superbug" infections that kill as many as 8,000 patients each year and cost health-care systems at least $100 million annually, a CBC News investigation has learned.

Yet infection control budgets are the first to be cut when money gets tight, some doctors say, despite the rising frequency of infections caused by bacteria such as Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus (MRSA).



The incidence of hospital-acquired MRSA has increased tenfold in less than a decade.

Since 2003, C. difficile has killed more than 600 people in Quebec alone, most of them elderly or very sick patients.

In all, the statistics show 250,000 Canadians are getting sick from preventable infections every year.

Such infections kill more North Americans annually than breast cancer, traffic accidents and AIDS combined.

Many fatal infections preventable: official

Despite the wake-up call that SARS gave to the Toronto area in 2003, Niagara public health officer Dr. Douglas Sidar says infection control still does not receive enough attention in Canada's hospitals.

"People die from these infections – which technically, almost certainly, in many instances can be prevented," said Sidar.

He thinks hospitals must wake up to the need for proper infection control – including nurses who know how to recognize the signs of an infection and enough cleaning staff to keep commonly touched surfaces free of bacterial contamination.

Sidar also said more should be done to track down the source of an infection when an outbreak occurs so that the hospital doesn't keep making people sick.

Complacency about germs blamed

Dr. Michael Rachlis, who studies and writes books about Canada's health-care system, says a big part of the problem is the lack of controls over infection surveillance in hospitals.

"We have become complacent about infectious diseases," he said. "We certainly got reminded in the '80s, with AIDS, that the plagues are always around and threaten us, but in general we are not afraid of germs."

Infection control budgets are still treated like low-hanging fruit, he said, with cleaning and nursing staff the first items to be cut when hospitals experience a financial crunch.

TOMORROW: Canadian hospitals have fewer rules than restaurants when it comes to infection control measures – and that has experts calling for mandatory national standards.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national ... 50321.html