Quebec public health officials are defending their infection-control policies after a scathing investigation revealed a string of infant deaths from a bacterium in the plumbing pipes at a Montreal children's hospital.

This comes as some parents wonder why they were kept in the dark about the deaths.

A Radio-Canada investigation found that premature babies died after being infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Sainte-Justine Hospital neonatal ward in 2004 and 2005.

The 50 cases of infection that include six deaths resulted in the hospital closing the neonatal ward, 18 months after the first fatality as the facility tried in vain to locate the bacterial colony that was thriving in the corroded and aging drainage pipes.

On Friday, Quebec health officials said the hospital took appropriate steps to solve the mystery of the bacterial outbreak.

"If it would have been at any time suspected that it's coming from the [ward] itself, then you change the [ward]," said Dr. Alain Poirier, head of Quebec's Public Health Department.

"But that was never recommended, because [hospital officials] were looking at different procedures that you can change without changing the [ward] itself."

When babies began showing signs of infection, the hospital would have had to rule out other possible contaminants such as incubators or human contact because it's a drastic step to shut down a ward, Poirier said.

The outbreak, he said, was not disclosed to parents or the public because the hospital did not connect the babies' deaths as they were spread over a long period of time.

'It's been 3 years'

Parents who lost their children in the outbreak wonder why they were kept in the dark.

"It's been three years, and in our mind, our little girl died of a heart attack," said Edwine Jacques, who gave birth to her daughter Kaysha-Edwina in August 2004.

Last week, hospital officials contacted her and told her Kaysha-Edwina had been infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the main cause of her death.

So Jacques is left wondering why the hospital never came clean with her daughter's medical condition. 

The health critic with Action démocratique du Québec, Eric Caire, says the fatal outbreak reflects a "culture of camouflage" in the province's health network.

"How come the minister isn't informed of such events in the health-care network?" Caire asked Friday. "Did the minister know? And if yes, why did he not talk about it?"

Health Minister Philippe Couillard said he was aware of the bacterial outbreak at the hospital in early 2005, but decided not to make it public because regional health officials assured him there was no further risk of serious infection.

“The public health director in Montreal said in a letter to the CEO of the Montreal health board that there was no risk for the health of the population, and he had no further recommendation than the current actions that were being done at the time,” Couillard said on Friday.

He qualified his response by suggesting parents were properly informed.

"I'm sure the physicians when they talked to the families, they told them about a variety of medical problems that these people have.

"They had multiple and severe health problems, including the occurrence of an infection."

The Parti Québécois is urging the province to inspect plumbing systems in older hospitals where there may be similar risk of an outbreak.

Under control: hospital

Sainte-Justine Hospital is insisting the bacterial growth is now under control and there is no inherent danger to patients.

"Sainte-Justine is very safe," said Dr. Isabelle Amyot, the hospital's medical director. "We took all the measures that were needed, and it's been one year, and there has been no case."

Premature babies, who are being housed in a temporary ward, no longer have any contact with hospital tap water, she said.

They are washed with distilled water and staff who care for them must wash with an alcohol-based disinfectant before donning protective gloves, she said.

But the hospital warned the bacteria cannot be fully eliminated as long as the water-pipe system isn't replaced with a modern version.