'Superbugs' on the rise in Canadian hospitals, new Queen's s...(9. Although more people are working...),Health

Although more people are working in the area of infection control today, a smaller percentage is certified, notes co-author of the study Doug Ford, a research associate with Queen's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. Since certification is a two-year process, this may be the result of a lag in new personnel finishing their training, he adds.

Infection control activities in Canada have been crisis-driven, the study suggests. Both the 2003 outbreak of SARS in Ontario and the 2002-04 C. difficile crisis in Quebec spurred greater investments in acute care hospital infection control program resources and activities in those provinces. Ontario staffing levels and infection surveillance activities grew significantly between 1999 and 2005, while a comparable increase in staffing levels and infection control activities occurred in Quebec over the same period.

"Taking into account the increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant organisms and threats of avian and pandemic influenza and SARS-like epidemics, considerable additional investment in infection control resources and programming is needed in Canadian acute care hospitals," the researchers say.

"Not making the required investments would be shortsighted and might suggest that we have already forgotten the lessons we learned from the outbreaks of SARS and C. difficile."

'/>"/>