India, being a tropical country, has a high incidence of infectious diseases, with ailments like tuberculosis, fungal infections, dengue, malaria, scrub typhus, Hepatitis B, and HIV being prevalent across the country. Infection diseases can be of various categories – viral, bacterial, and fungal.
As we feel the ravages of a pandemic due to the COVID-19 virus, and we are all realising how dangerous a viral infection can get, bacterial infections can also cause serious health issues. If bacterial pneumonia was probably the leading cause of death among the elderly till mid-20th century, improved sanitation, vaccination, and antibiotics have helped to decrease mortality rate from bacterial infections.
Since the early 21st century, some bacterial illnesses, particularly some strains of tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, had developed resistance to one or more drugs that are widely used to treat the infection and was among the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide.
While an irrational use of antibiotics has led to multi-drug resistant organisms, the advent of sophisticated therapeutic options to various illnesses has helped increase the life span of humans. There is, however, an increased chance of infections due to use of immunosuppressive drugs administered for chemotherapy to cancer patients, solid organ & bone marrow transplants, and other diseases.
Proper identification of infections and rational treatment is the key to management of infectious diseases and this has made it imperative for hospitals to have a welldefined department of infectious Diseases to prevent, contain, effectively treat infectious diseases, and to train the next generation of infectious diseases physicians.
AMRI Hospitals with its three Units in – Dhakuria, Mukundapur, Salt Lake – is the first multispecialty group of hospitals in Eastern India to start a department of Infectious diseases, which offers in-patient, outdoor patient and referral services to patients having complex infection profiles, including fevers of unknown origin, rare undiagnosed infections, cases with diagnostic, and therapeutic dilemma.
Activities of the Department at AMRI Hospitals are not just restricted to direct patient care, with the private healthcare Group offering Antimicrobial Stewardship and Hospital Infection Prevention & Control services in liaison with the departments of Critical Care Medicine and Microbiology.
Adult vaccination is also offered as preventive strategy of infections for adults to boost immunity, as per prevalent infections in India. Travel Medicine services are offered to International travellers and students going abroad for higher studies to ensure a smooth transit, visa approvals and treatment of fever in returning travellers. AMRI Hospital-Dhakuria holds the distinction of being the first private healthcare service provider to start adult vaccination and Travel Medicine Clinic in Kolkata.
Managing patients with advanced infection profiles like: