TORONTO - A southwestern Ontario hospital where 62 people died during a recent outbreak of C. difficile confirmed Tuesday that a seventh staff member has contracted scabies, a non-life threatening but highly contagious skin rash.

The latest employee to show symptoms at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington, Ont., brings the number of people with the rash to eight, said Anne Marie MacDonald, director of surgery and patient care.

The only patient with scabies is an elderly man, who is believed to have brought it to the hospital when he was transferred from a long-term care facility earlier this month, she said.

MacDonald described the outbreak as "minor."

However the hospital is aware that in the wake of C. difficile outbreak, the eight confirmed cases of scabies will raise more concerns about the facility's safety, she added.

"I'm sure there's a worry in the community and that's why we're being as aggressive as we are," MacDonald said. "We're trying to ensure that potential patients in our community feel that they have a safe community hospital to come to."

The hospital went beyond provincial guidelines for dealing with outbreaks by providing preventative treatment to 100 individuals who came in contact with the eight who were infected, rather than merely treating those with symptoms, she said.

Staff also thoroughly cleaned every room the people came in contact with.

The decision to go above and beyond the provincial mandate for dealing with outbreaks had nothing to do with the C. difficile outbreak, MacDonald said.

"That wasn't part of our consideration in doing that."

The hospital officially declared the C. difficile outbreak over last month.

Safety at Ontario hospitals is a top priority, Health Minister David Caplan said Tuesday as he fielded questions about the outbreak.

"Getting to the bottom of it certainly is important, and I know the hospital officials are, and it is under containment," Caplan said.

Caplan also echoed George Smitherman, his predecessor in the Health portfolio, by dismissing calls for an inquiry into past C. difficile deaths.

At least 463 patients infected with the deadly bacterium died in 22 of Ontario's 157 hospitals between January 2006 and May 2008.

At the 260-bed Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, 91 patients with C. difficile died, 62 of them as a direct result of the infection.

The province will impose a mandatory reporting system on Sept. 30 to record the number of patients infected with C. difficile.