Hospitals in Montreal and Calgary are fighting a rise in infections with Clostridium difficile, which has killed more people in the past 18 months than were killed by last year's outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), a report in CMAJ,the Canadian Medical AssociationJournal, says.

The report appeared as an early release on the journal's website on 4 June (www.cmaj.ca/pdfs/171_1_news.pdf). “CMAJ's investigation has elicited reports of the deaths of at least 79 patients in several institutions, all of whom contracted the infection in 2003 or the first few months of 2004,” says the journal. “By comparison, in all of Canada 44 people died from SARS during last year's outbreak in Ontario.”

At least 12 Montreal hospitals have been trying to contain the outbreaks …