Ontario makes reporting C. difficile data mandatory

The Canadian Press, June 5, 2008

All Ontario, Canada, hospitals will have to start reporting on the number of cases they have of the potentially deadly C. difficile bacteria starting Sept. 30. Critics claim Ontario was too slow to come up with a plan to deal with C. difficile after it claimed 2,000lives in Quebec in 2003, and insist some of the 260 deaths reported so far in seven Ontario hospitals could have been prevented. They also say the public has a right to know the extent of the C. difficile outbreak in all 157 hospitals in the province.