A MICROBE’S RAP SHEET

The Public Health Agency of Canada does not release comprehensive national data on C. difficile infections.

But reports from provincial and academic groups show the microbes continue to take a heavy toll. One study released this fall estimates there were 37,900 C. difficile infections in Canada in 2012.

Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have the highest rates of infection, and the numbers have been climbing in Alberta. Most people recover, but C. difficile can cause relentless and fatal diarrhea, particularly in vulnerable older people in health care facilities.

Ontario had 42,421 cases of C. difficile infections between April 2002 and March 2010, according to a recent study. The province’s infection rate now runs at between 5,000 and 6,000 cases a year. Ontario does not release data on deaths associated with the infections.

Quebec had 32,374 C. difficile infections in its hospitals in the eight years between 2004 and 2012, with 4,554 individuals dying within 30 days of infection, according to the province’s public health institute. The institute does not specify how many deaths are attributable to C. difficile infection and notes that many of the patients had serious underlying health conditions. Quebec hospitals reported 3,748 C. difficile infections in 2011/12, the most recent data available.

British Columbia had 17,468 C. difficile cases between 2008 and March, 2013, according to the province’s infection control network, which started releasing data in 2008. In the two years between 2008 and 2010, more than 1,000 individuals in B.C. died within 30 days of infection with C. difficile. The B.C. network no longer releases statistics on deaths associated with C. difficile, saying the data are “open to misinterpretation.” B.C. had 3,246 C. difficile cases in 2012-2013.