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C.difficile cases reported at Lakeshore General
Hospitals on alert for listeriosis infections
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Friday, September 5, 2008
While hospitals are on alert for listeriosis infections, the c.difficile bacteria has not gone away.
Officials at the Lakeshore Hospital reported Tuesday six patients were in isolation due to c.difficile – a number which officials were quick to point out, is not considered high.
“This is certainly not an outbreak,” hospital spokesman Louis-Pascal Cyr said, explaining that six patients infected with c.difficile is about average. “Sometimes it can go down to two patients and other times, it can go up,” he said.
Of the six cases in isolation, five contracted the bacterium at the hospital.
“They are all in recovery and many are nearing the end of their treatment, ” he said, adding that all six patients are male, ranging in age from 70 to 86.
Cyr said the hospital continues to try to improve on getting rid of the deadly bug. Between April 1, 2004, to March 2005, a period in which a virulent strain of c.difficile was circulating in Quebec, there were 101 cases of c.difficile and six deaths at the Lakeshore.