Local public health authorities have declared an outbreak at Guelph General Hospital after an unusual increase in the number of C. difficile cases for the months of May and June.
While the hospital normally sees one or two cases monthly, there were seven cases in May and four cases in June.
The number of cases started rising on May 4, and the outbreak was declared Tuesday, immediately after the two month period ended.
In a press release, Richard Ernst, president and CEO of the hospital said there are two situations when an outbreak is declared.
"One is to have a concentrated spike in the number of cases. The other is by having a longer two-month period of higher than usual activity."
It's also possible one person has died there from the disease. Ernst tells CTV News an elderly patient who caught the disease at the hospital, may have died from it.
"The patient was admitted to the hospital with another serious medical condition and either or both could have contributed to the death," he says.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has been actively involved in the situation since the first cases were identified.
Extra precautions are in place and new, stronger cleaning products are being used by staff to help fight any further spread.
The hospital says visitors are still allowed, but people are asked to use disinfecting gel when entering and leaving all areas of the hospital.
There reportedly haven't been any new cases over the last two weeks, but it will be at least six weeks before the outbreak can be declared over at the hospital.
Meanwhile in the Niagara area there have been an estimated 63 cases and 16 deaths from the disease, prompting the closure of the emergency room at the Greater Niagara General Hospital and a protest there.
Questions are being asked about the protocols that are in place at those facilities to deal with the disease.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is calling on the ombudsman to investigate, "And we've been trying to get the government to take seriously our request for an independent investigation into what's happening there."
