Hospital-acquired infections affect 200,000 Canadians every year and kill 12,000 of them. These aren’t people who arrived critically ill. These are people who went in for something and picked up a superbug that antibiotics cannot touch. The cleanest-looking room in the building can still be carrying Clostridium difficile 90 days after the last infected patient left.

What does it feel like to learn that the place designed to fix you has a structural problem nobody is fixing? Cleaners get ten minutes to turn over a room. The cloths being used don’t work against the resistant bugs. The doctor who first suggested hand washing in 1840 was sanctioned, committed, and died of an infection three weeks later. The culture runs deep.

The next time someone you love is admitted, microbiologist Keith Warriner has one piece of advice: skip the flowers. Bring disinfectant wipes instead.

Topics: hospital-acquired infections, superbugs Canada, antibiotic resistant bacteria, hospital hygiene, Clostridium difficile

GUEST: Keith Warriner

Originally aired on2026-03-23