Link: globeandmail.com: Ottawa Hospital to screen patients for superbugs.
The Ottawa Hospital is planning to screen every overnight patient for two virulent superbugs in an effort to ward off some of the devastating infections and deaths they cause to thousands of Canadians each year.
About 50,000 patients will be screened for methicillen-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), two intruders that, along with other superbugs, are among the hospital-acquired infections that kill more than 8,000 people across the nation annually.
A summer pilot project at the Ottawa Hospital revealed that patients not considered at high risk of having the superbugs were infected, while others suspected of having them did not, said Virginia Roth, director of infection prevention and control for the hospital.
