British hospitals are under attack from a variety of pests, according to reports obtained under U.K.'s Freedom of Information Act.

From January 2006 to March 2008, almost 20,000 incidents of infestations were reported by the National Health System. They included sightings of rats, mice, fleas, bedbugs, ants and cockroaches

The rise in number of clostridium difficile-related deaths in Ontario has prompted Canadian Health Minister George Smitherman to order all hospitals to report cases of the superbug to the ministry.

So far 76 confined at the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington have died the past 20 months from direct and indirect exposure to the superbug bacteria, which leads to severe diarrhea

"Significant failings" at all levels of leadership have been blamed for the deaths of 90 patients who contracted a bacterial infection in three English hospitals. According to an investigation by the British Healthcare Commission, health officials are to blame for the unsafe circumstances surrounding the infections of more than 1,000 patients at the hospitals.

The patients were infected with Clostridium difficile which can cause diarrhea, colitis and other intestinal problems, the Commission said on its website. Nurses at three hospitals run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells National Health System (NHS) trust were too busy to wash their hands and left patients in their own excrement, the commission added. The trust's Chief Executive Rose Gibb resigned last week

Hospitals in Quebec are facing another outbreak of Clostridium difficile. The bacterium has caused more than 2,000 deaths in the past 4 years, and 8 people have died in the past three months at a Quebec City hospital.

The latest round of cases, which occurred at the Saint-Francois d'Assise hospital, sickened 52 people. The outbreak appears to be contained, however, as health officials report that the number of cases has decreased to 3 in the past 3 weeks

Researchers say an intestinal infection that typically sickens hospital patients seems to have made the leap into the general population. USA Today reports that during a meeting last weekend of the Infectious Disease Society of America, researchers released studies on changes in the Clostridium difficile infection. Known as CDAD, the infection has usually been seen in people hospitalized and on antibiotics. However, studies presented at the meeting, which was held in Toronto and ended Sunday, found that CDAD was making surprising inroads with healthy people. For example, in a study of six hospital conducted in 2005, researchers in North Carolina and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, found that nearly one in five people with CDAD got the infection before being admitted to the hospital, USA Today reported. In another study, researchers in Philadelphia reported that six otherwise healthy women were treated for CDAD this year. Three of the women were pregnant, one was a new mother, and two had hysterectomies. The researchers warned that doctors "should have heightened awareness for CDAD in this population," USA Today reported. Although a second the study of the six hospitals found that 59 percent of the CDAD cases did not involve the use of antibiotics, a CDC official said the drugs remain suspect in CDAD cases. Preeta Kutty, a CDC epidemic intelligence service officer, told USA Today, that antibiotics are "the most important modifiable risk factor," in CDAD cases. CDAD causes diarrhea and colitis but researchers also warned that the infection can also lead to perforation of the colon, bloodstream infections, and death. Clifford McDonald, a co-author of the CDC study, said it is unclear why CDAD is turning up outside hospitals. However, the community strain appears to be less severe than its hospital counterpart, McDonald told USA Today