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Quebec increases funding to fight infections in hospitals

Quebec David Spurgeon

The Quebec government has announced that it will increase funding for hospitals’ infection control programmes by $C20m (£8.6m; $16.1m; €12.4m). Meanwhile preliminary findings have indicated that Clostridium difficile infections in the province’s hospitals have dropped substantially from levels in last year’s outbreak.

The infection was said last June to have killed more Canadians than were killed by the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (BMJ 2004;328:1457).

Among 88 hospitals in the province, the median infection rate was 11.7 people per 10 000 hospital days from the end of last August to mid-November. In Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre—five teaching hospitals affiliated with the McGill University medical faculty—there were 15.6 infections per 10 000 patient days from mid-August 2004 to mid-January 2005, down from 23.6 infections per 10 000 patient days from mid-August 2003 to mid-January 2004. The actual numbers of cases at the centre . . . [Full text of this article]

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Kamran Abbasi
BMJ 2005 330: 0. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Canadian hospitals fight a rise in infections with Clostridium difficile

David Spurgeon
BMJ 2004 328: 1457. [Extract] [Full Text]