Mount Sinai Hospital: Urinary Tract Infections

Intensive Care Unit Dept: State-of-the-art handwashing sinks installed in the intensive care unit and some patient rooms in Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital actually became the reservoir of a pesky drug-resistant bug that infected or colonized 66 patients from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2011, according to CBC. The outbreak involved Klebsiella oxytoca , a bacterium that normally lives in the human gut. It typically causes urinary tract infections, but can also trigger bacteremia infection in the blood and an investigation aimed at pinpointing the source of a lingering bacterial outbreak in a Toronto hospital turned up an unlikely suspect: the sinks did it. Researchers from the hospital have reported the finding of their investigation in the August issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.