No one should face the untimely passing of their loved ones and watch helplessly when it can be prevented. One of my dear ones lost their battle fighting a deadly pathogen, Candida Auris that was hospital-acquired at Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital. Reporting of Patients getting infected by deadly drug-resistant pathogens, Candida Auris and many others at Sir H N Reliance Hospital should be made mandatory to relevant health authorities and it needs to be kept under strict control to save many lives.
Currently, there is no State authority that monitors Hospital Acquired Infections, and as such patients are forced to make choices in terms of hospitals, without any information whatsoever regarding existing drug-resistant pathogens at any hospital. If patients find out about the deadly pathogens that exist in the specific hospital ICUs- they will fear getting admitted there because of the imminent danger lurking inside which would cost them their very lives.
This is COVID time and everyone is on high alert. Every precaution and effort is being made to protect and save lives. Would people deliberately go to containment zones to infect themselves? The ICU at Reliance Foundation Hospital is similar to a COVID 19 containment zone and is potentially dangerous to all patients who are admitted there. It is the patient’s right to know and be made aware of rampant infections inside the hospital for their own safety and this should be made public information for citizen awareness and safety. This is a Public health Emergency of the highest order and no measures are being taken to curb it or even report it.
Candida Auris - which is drug-resistant has been found to infect many patients admitted to the ICU at Reliance Hospital. Nosocomial infections or Hospital Acquired Infections have very high morbidity, mortality, and transmissibility rate. The recovery rate of such infections is low; much lower than COVID-19! From a world-class facility such as RFH which boasts of having world-class equipment and the best team of doctors and nurses, I find that this to be an utter failure of the system. More than one in ten patients with hospital-acquired infections die even as all hospitals maintain a studied silence over outbreaks in their facilities (since they don’t want panic-stricken patients to boycott their premises).
As medical care facilities face the onslaught of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, viruses due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics, the relatively new fungus, which has begun to show multi-drug resistance, has doubled the magnitude of the public health challenge. How does one save critically-ill patients from hospital-acquired infections, which are caused not just by superbug bacteria, as previously thought, but also new variants of fungus which lay waiting in hospitals?
Essentially, the critical care units of many hospitals are emerging in a position with century-old issues. There is no State government authority that mandates reporting of deadly infections and associated deaths such that hospitals can be forced to clean up their act. While hospitals in many other countries have shut down their premises after an outbreak what is RFH doing about this epidemic? If action is not taken immediately by State Health Ministry many lives will be lost to this Hospital Acquired Info.
