Multidrug-resistant North American pulsotype 2 Clostridium difficile was the predominant toxigenic hospital-acquired strain in the province of Manitoba, Canada, in 2006-2007.

The objective of the current study was to determine whether the antimicrobial susceptibility profile or genotype of hospital-acquired isolates of Clostridium difficile differed from isolates causing community-acquired disease. Five hundred diarrhoeal stool samples (one >2 ml sample per patient) from patients across Manitoba, Canada, in 2006-2007 that were reported as C. difficile toxin positive were cultured, resulting in 432 isolates of toxin-positive C.

The responses of Aboriginal Canadians to adjuvanted pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza vaccine.

Background: Because many Aboriginal Canadians had severe cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza, they were given priority access to vaccine. However, it was not known if the single recommended dose would adequately protect people at high risk, prompting our study to assess responses to the vaccine among Aboriginal Canadians.

Methods: We enrolled First Nations and Métis adults aged 20-59 years in our prospective cohort study.

Population-based surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection in Manitoba, Canada, by using interim surveillance definitions.

Objective: To apply interim surveillance definitions of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) cases to 1 year of data from the provincewide surveillance system of Manitoba, Canada, to determine the epidemiology of CDI incident cases in a population.

Methods: CDI cases were categorized with interim surveillance definitions developed by an ad hoc C. difficile surveillance working group.