C.Diff - Canada watches Britain

Pat's Note: On a day when Gordon Brown is crowing over a reduction in
MRSA deaths, the figures questioned by the main MRSA charities, and
the newsppapers are reporting a big increase in C.Diff deaths
especially in Scotland, Canada reports on Britain.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/437071

How other countries fight C. diff

Out of Control - Part 5 of a 5 part series

September 18, 2008
Joan Walters
The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 18, 2008)

Outside Ontario, rising death and infection rates from a vicious new
strain of the superbug C. difficile have prompted governments to call
inquiries, impose fines, offer incentives and take other action to
bring the disease under control.

In the United States, Medicare officials asked this summer for public
comment on a plan to hold back payments to hospitals for the extra
care required for patients harmed by certain preventable infections --
including C. diff.

The U.K. has imposed fines of up to $100,000 and warned of reduced
funding for hospitals that cannot hit government-imposed targets to
bring C. diff infection rates down.

Around the world, rising public anxiety and warnings from health
watchdogs have led other jurisdictions to act aggressively.

In Ontario -- where hundreds of infected hospital patients have died
in just the past two years -- the government takes its first formal
steps against the bug next week with the launch of mandatory reporting
on hospital C. diff infection rates.

But Ontario's C. diff death rate, which went up 50 per cent from 2005
to 2007, indicates more is needed, critics of the government say.

A tally by The Spectator shows at least 460 patients infected with C.
diff have died at just 22 of Ontario's 157 hospitals since 2006. In
the worst of those outbreaks, 91 patients died at Joseph Brant
Memorial Hospital.

But the Ontario government has declined to find out on its own how
many patients have died provincewide. It has also rejected calls for
any investigation or inquiry into what went wrong with the province's
infection controls.

"Family after family after family went through hell and back in
dealing with these outbreaks and the government pretty much tried to
have an arm's-length approach," says New Democrat Andrea Horwath, MPP
for Hamilton Centre.

"That is absolutely unacceptable when people were dying."

And the new C. diff reporting system that launches Sept. 26 will only
look at what happens from this point forward, not what occurred in the
past. It will not count deaths, either, meaning the public will not be
able to see whether C. diff fatalities rise -- as they have in other
countries.

Investigations into the circumstances surrounding as few as 20 deaths
from C. diff have been called in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland.

Other initiatives include:

* Notice of fines of up to $100,000 has been posted by Britain's
National Health Service for hospitals that breach hygiene regulations.
The fines also cover infractions such as obstructing a government
inspector and failing to provide requested documents.

* British inspectors will now have the power to prosecute hospitals
and clinics -- for example, if they fail to take requested action
after an outbreak of C. diff.

* Doctors and other health workers in Britain have a
"bare-below-the-elbows" dress code: no ties, shirt cuffs, rings or
watches. C. diff spores can survive on clothing and other surfaces.

* U.K. hospitals with declining C. diff rates can apply to an
incentive fund for up to $500,000 for new hygiene initiatives, such as
extra handwashing basins.

* Earlier this year in Northern Ireland, the health minister took less
than a month to order a review and set in motion an action plan after
51 patients in one hospital district died of C. diff. An expert panel
was retained for a three-month investigation of what went wrong, and
$18 million was found for special infection-fighting measures,
including unannounced hygiene inspections of hospitals.

Northern Ireland has also set a target of a 20 per cent reduction in
C. diff in the elderly by mid-2009.

* The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control called this
summer for a review of existing guidelines for C. diff control, after
outbreaks of the epidemic strain in 16 countries there.

* A symposium of clinical microbiologists in Europe called this spring
for strong efforts to find new therapies for the bacterium.

--
Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com  and http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/
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