Health Sciences North is reporting on its website that there's been an outbreak of Clostridium Difficile, more commonly known as C. difficile, on the fourth floor of the hospital's north tower.

Special infection prevention and control measures have been implemented, the website statement said.

Visitors to the unit are asked to check in at the nursing station prior to visiting any patients, and exercise proper hand hygiene.

“Frequent hand hygiene is extremely effective in reducing the spread of infection,” the website statement said.

MayoClinic.com reports C. difficile bacteria can be found both in the environment and in human and animal feces, while a small number of people naturally carry the bacteria in their large intestine.

Passed in feces and spread to food, surfaces and objects when infected people don't practice good hands hygiene, the bacteria produce tough spores that can survive on surfaces outside the body for weeks or months.

Healthy people don't often get sick from C. difficile. However, after using antibiotics to treat infection, which can destroy some of the normal bacteria in the intestine, C. difficile can grow out of control, producing toxins that attack the lining of the intestine, causing illness.