Island health officials stay vigilant with C. difficile

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

Prince Edward Island hospitals are always vigilant about preventing Clostridium difficile, say Health P.E.I. officials.

There were 66 reported cases of the more commonly known C. difficile on P.E.I. last year, none of which resulted in fatalities.

The bacterial strain is widely distributed in the environment and the bacteria can produce different toxins and can cause severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and other forms of intestinal illness. Three to five per cent of people though will feel no ill effects from the bacteria.

It can become fatal if the victim is already having troubles with their immune system. The elderly and those who have underlying conditions with their immunity are at the most risk.

Stacey Burns, provincial infection prevention and control program coordinator, said it is not unusual for her to see at least one case a week of someone with C difficile.

“In our health care facilities we are constantly looking for any sort of diarrheal illness and we have precautions put in place whenever we see that to decrease any spread,” she said. “We follow a guideline here on P.E.I. just to make sure our cleaning is being done appropriately, that we’re identifying our cases early and getting them on precautions and that our hand hygiene in our facilities and health care areas is as good as it can be.”

Recently in parts of Southern Ontario, outbreaks of the bacteria have occurred. Among the 100 cases, 20 fatalities have occurred.

Burns said people get sick with C. difficile after being on antibiotics for long periods of time but don’t always get it at the hospital.

“It doesn’t only spread through the hands of health care workers and through equipment,” she said. “People can also have the symptoms in the community. So if they were taking antibiotics for whatever reason they may have diarrheal illness go back in to see their physician give a stool specimen and find out they have C. difficile.”

Outbreak management is taken seriously by the province, said Burns.

“(If diagnosed) We keep them in a private room if at all possible, hand hygiene measures would be very important, be washing with soap and water and wearing gowns and gloves to take care of these folks and we would probably have some visitor restrictions if there was an outbreak,” she said. “The cleaning is different for C. difficile. Friction is very important, as it always is, but after an area is actually cleaned with friction and detergent, it’s then disinfected with either a bleach solution or a special sporicidal disinfectant.”

Lamont Sweet, Deputy Chief Health Officer, said there are different strains of the bacteria, some more dangerous than others, but should all be taken seriously.

“What our understanding is there are more serious strains of the illness, such as the one that hit Quebec a few years back now,” he said. “But also if it happens to get in an area where there is a lot of people who are more likely to get ill and it starts spreading, particularly people who have underlying illnesses and they’re all in one area, then there can be an outbreak there with garden variety types of the illness.”