C.Diff - Canada watches itself

Pat's Note: No mention of pigs in the final part.

Just to remind you "a virulent new form" of C.Diff (027)  is found in
pigs and Ontario, like Quebec has had a circovirus epidemic in its
pigs for some years.

MRSA st398 was found in both the people, pigs and pork in Canada.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/437107


Not good enough

C. difficile deaths; FIFTH OF A FIVE-PART SERIES

September 18, 2008
Lee Prokaska
The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 18, 2008)
The Dalton McGuinty government has failed in the fight against a
virulent new form of superbug C. difficile.

The province has failed to get to the root of the problem, which has
been linked to at least 460 deaths at 22 hospitals in two years. How
many deaths at the rest of Ontario's 157 hospitals may be related to
C. diff?

The province has failed to learn from other jurisdictions -- such as
Quebec, Britain and the United States -- where the response has been
decisive, swift and persistent.

And two years into the outbreak of this stronger, epidemic strain of
C. diff, the province doesn't even know how big the problem really is.

It is shameful. It must change. Right away.

An investigation by Spectator reporters Carmela Fragomeni, Naomi
Powell and Joan Walters reveals that, despite what McGuinty, previous
health minister George Smitherman and current Health Minister David
Caplan say, the province has no co-ordinated response to C. diff.

The government's hopes for the appearance of competence seem to be
pinned on a new C. diff reporting system being launched next week. But
that system will only look at what's happening from this point
forward. It will not collect or analyze data on what has been
occurring in Ontario hospitals for at least two years. Nor will it
count C. diff-related deaths, as is done in other countries.

Ontario health-care consumers have the right to know not just the
rates of infection -- the results of complex mathematical calculations
-- but also how many people have been infected and how many have died.
Without that kind of specific information, how are we to have
confidence that our government is handling this outbreak correctly?

And we must think beyond numerical data. This is about real people who
have died, bereft of dignity and, perhaps, before their time. It is
about families losing cherished loves ones. It is not good enough for
the provincial government to turn away from these deaths -- however
many there have been -- and look only to the future.

There has been pressure on the premier since the spring to launch a
quick, independent investigation to get a handle on how the crisis
developed and to address immediate concerns. Other jurisdictions have
done this, with life-saving results. There is no excuse for Ontario
not to do it -- now.

Simply reporting infection rates is not enough. Ontarians need a
detailed picture and the government needs a detailed plan of action.

We must know with certainty what happened in the past so more loved
ones are not lost in the future.

--
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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