In a study published last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that at any point of time more than 1.4 million people in the world suffer from hospital acquired infections (HAI). The number is even higher in developing countries like India. For instance, Achla Shukla, a 38-year-old bank employee was operated for cholecystitis (inflammation in the gallbladder) in a reputed Delhi hospital in October 2007. After a 10-day stay in the hospital, she contracted septicaemia, a common HAI.

“Septicaemia is a potentially life-threatening infection in which large amounts of bacteria poison the blood. In Achla’s case, the wounds, which would have healed in 8 to 10 days, took a month to mend,” says her physician, Dr Vikram Sabharwal.

The problem is quite grave, agrees Dr Arvind Taneja, director of paediatric services, Max Health Care, Delhi. “Almost 50 per cent of those admitted to intensive care units get such infections in one form or the other. From the pre-operative period till discharge, patients can catch a number of HAIs like ventilator-associated pneumonia, septicaemia, urinary tract infection, hospital-acquired pneumonia and gastroenteritis.”

Patients usually contract the infections from invasive devices like incubation tubes, catheters, surgical drains and tracheostomy tubes (a small tube designed to be directly placed into a patient’s windpipe through the neck). “All these bypass the body’s natural lines of defence against pathogens and lead to infection,” says Dr Taneja.

Excessive use of antibiotics is another practice that has triggered the number of HAI cases. According to Dr Arvind Bountra, senior consultant paediatrician, GM Modi Hospital, doctors must not use antibiotics and the patients should not insist on them unless they are essential. “Antibiotics cannot distinguish between good and bad bacteria. They impair an individual’s immune system, making him or her susceptible to HAI,” he says. 

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