SuperbugsScent-Tracking Dogs Help Hospitals Track Superbug
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year C difficile causes more than 450,000 infections in U.S. hospitals, is associated with more than 29,000 deaths, and costs the U.S. healthcare system nearly $5 billion. One of the main reasons C difficile has become such a burden for hospitals is that it spreads easily—typically through contact between sick patients and healthcare workers—and it’s very hard to get rid of. One hospital fights C difficile by employing a dog trained to smell of the deadly bacterium.
Angus, a 5-year-old English springer spaniel, doesn’t know the havoc that Clostridioides difficile can wreak. But he knows that when he finds the scent of the deadly bacterium at Vancouver General Hospital, he’ll get a reward.
“Only one odor in the world is important to him, and that’s C diff,” say his handler, Teresa Zurberg.
Angus and Zurberg, who works in patient quality and safety at the hospital, are part of a canine scent-detection program started in 2016 to detect C difficile on equipment and environmental surfaces at the hospital. When Angus detects the diarrhea-causing pathogen on a nursing station or in a hallway, his sniffing grows more intense. If Angus sits, lies down, or starts pacing back and forth, Zurberg knows he’s found what he’s looking for.
Then Angus gets paid.
“It’s all a game,” Zurberg says. “Angus knows that if he finds that odor, he gets what he really wants, which is either the toy in my back pocket or the treat in my hand.”
Hot on the Trail of C diff
It may be a game for Angus, but for hospitals, C difficile is serious business. Linked to rising use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which can wipe out a patient’s normal gut bacteria and allow the bacterium to multiply and produce toxins that inflame the colon, C difficile infections are the leading cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea in the world.
CIDRAP notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year C difficile causes more than 450,000 infections in U.S. hospitals, is associated with more than 29,000 deaths, and costs the U.S. healthcare system nearly $5 billion.
One of the main reasons C difficile has become such a burden for hospitals is that it spreads easily—typically through contact between sick patients and healthcare workers—and it’s very hard to get rid of.
“C difficile is particularly problematic because it can produce spores and can persist in the environment for long periods of time, and it’s recalcitrant to a lot of our regular hospital disinfectants and disinfection procedures,” says Elizabeth Bryce, MD, a clinician at the hospital and a director of infection control for Vancouver Coastal Health, the regional health authority. “It’s particularly problematic when a patient acquires it, because although you can have mild cases, you can also get life-threatening disease. So it behooves us, for the sake of our patients, to do something about this.”
