'Only two infectious disease specialists in Nagpur'

NAGPUR: Though

infection

is the highest cause of deaths in our country, there are less than 50 qualified specialists to treat infectious diseases for a population of over 1 billion while the city has only two such doctors.

The revelation was made at ‘CIDSCON’, the seventh annual conference of National Clinical Infectious Diseases Society (

CIDS

) whi ch was held recently in the city.

Infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites and can spread between individuals. They even include swine flu, pneumonia, AIDS, meningitis and chikungunya.

“The department of infectious disease remains an ignored stream. The government should recognize this field as a sub-speciality,” said Dr PH Chandrasekar, educational coordinator for Department of Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University, Detroit, USA.

Chandrasekar, a patron of National Clinical Infectious Diseases Society (CIDS), was in the city to attend ‘CIDSCON’. Dr V Ramasubramanian is the organizing chairman, while Dr

Ashwini Tayade

, an infectious disease specialist from the city, is the organizing secretary.

According to Dr Tayade, Dr Nitin Shinde is the second infectious disease specialist from the city. “Both of us have cleared National Board of Examination (

NBE

) in infectious diseases,” he said.

“Infectious disease is still a young branch in India. The educational system never thought of introducing it as a sub-speciality. In US, it was introduced in 1960. In India, only

AIIMS Delhi

and

CMC Vellore

have started offering DM in infectious diseases recently,” said Dr Chandrasekar.

“In India, there are thousands of kidney and heart specialists. Infectious disease is the highest cause of death in India but there are less than 50 doctors to support and provide medical care to such patients. There are many doctors who without any formal training in infectious diseases call themselves a specialist,” Dr Chandrasekar said.

Dr Chandrasekar added that many people who come to hospital with heart or lung disease die because of some type of infection they acquired inside the hospital. “In US, about 1 lakh patient die of hospital acquired infection (HAI) every year. In India, the figure would be much higher. It’s just that there is no data here. Not everyone dares to report it,” he said.

“Medical students here are not taught the importance of HAI. They are not taught the importance of clean water, clean sanitation, and washing hands before performing procedure or even touching the patient. All this has to be introduced in undergraduate as well as postgraduate curriculum,” he said.

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