TORONTO - A new study says rates of hospital-acquired infections rose in Canada, even after Toronto's SARS outbreak and Quebec's C. difficile nightmare turned political attention to the problem.
The survey of hospitals shows that rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- known as MRSA -- more than doubled in the period from 1999 to 2005.
There were 5.2 cases per 1,000 hospital admissions in 2005, up from two per 1,000 in 1999.
There was also an upward trend in Clostridium difficile infections, and the number of hospitals reporting new cases of infection with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus rose 77 per cent over the period.
The researchers say the results show infection control programs in Canada continued to fall short of expert advice.
The survey was conducted in 2006 by researchers from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and was a follow-up to an earlier survey conducted in 1999.
