The Cape Breton District Health Authority says the latest outbreak of C. difficile could be over in days.
Six patients who contracted the bacteria have died since the outbreak started more than two months ago at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital and the authority says it is targeting cleanliness and early detection to prevent more deaths.
A dozen additional cleaners are brought in daily to scrub and disinfect patients' rooms. The authority says that because the bacterium is spread through the handling of human waste, everyone with diarrhea is now automatically tested.
It also says the number of samples sent to the hospital's lab has doubled during the latest outbreak.
"We are really much more aggressive in making sure if you have got diarrhea, we want a test to make sure you do not have C. difficile," says chief executive officer John Malcom. "If you have diarrhea, we'll put you on precautions as if you have C. difficile, until we get that negative result."
Today, three members of Nova Scotia's Tory caucus were briefed on what the hospital is doing to end the latest outbreak.
One of MLA Ed Orrell's senior constituents is among the six C. difficile patients who have died.
"Our meeting with hospital officials this morning has eased our minds that everything is being done that can be possibly done to be preventative, proactive and to make sure this outbreak is brought under control," says Orrell.
But a former provincial politician whose mother died earlier this month after contracting C. difficile doesn't think politics should play a part in dealing with the outbreak.
"Politics and the politicians, that is not going to eradicate or control C. difficile," says Brian Young. "This is really an issue for hospital staff; the people who work on the front line."
The health authority says it has spent an extra half-million dollars in the battle against C. difficile and provincial funding is expected to double in the coming year.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Randy MacDonald
