Infectious Diseases

The Department of Infectious Diseases at Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre provides specialised services for diagnosing, treating, and managing a wide range of infections, including bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic diseases. The team offers expert care for complex infections, supports infection control measures, and provides guidance on travel medicine, vaccination, and preventive healthcare:

• Tropical medicine: Topical diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, and leptospirosis are prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions. Tropical medicines focus on diagnosing, treating, and preventing these conditions. The department offers services such as consultation, diagnosis, and treatment plans tailored to the specific needs of patients, ensuring effective management and treatment strategies.
• Travel medicine: Travel medicine addresses health concerns arising from international travel such as yellow fever, typhoid, and Japanese encephalitis. The department provides pre-travel consultations, vaccinations, and prophylactic medications based on the traveller’s destination, ensuring a safe and healthy journey.
• Adult vaccination: Adult vaccinations are aimed at the infectious diseases that tend to be more prevalent or severe in adults, such as influenza, pneumococcal disease, hepatitis A and B, human papillomavirus (HPV), and shingles. The department offers personalised vaccination schedules based on individual risk factors, health conditions and lifestyle.
• Infection control: Infection control involves preventing the spread of infections within healthcare settings through rigorous protocols, hand hygiene education and appropriate treatment in terms of right medicine, appropriate dosage, and duration of treatment.
• HIV treatment: HIV treatment focuses on individuals living with HIV/AIDS, including diagnosis, antiretroviral therapy, prevention of opportunistic infections, and ongoing monitoring. The department provides a supportive and confidential environment to ensure optimal patient outcomes.
• Transplant ID: Transplant Infectious Diseases (ID) focuses on infections commonly seen in organ transplant recipients due to their immunosuppressed state. Treatment involves early detection and management of opportunistic infections, while prevention includes pre-transplant screening, vaccination, and tailored antimicrobial prophylaxis to minimise infection risks.
• Clinical Microbiology: Clinical microbiology helps in the identification of pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. This information helps guide targeted treatment and supports infection prevention through antimicrobial susceptibility testing and outbreak monitoring. Additionally, it aids in optimising the medication management programmes to combat resistance effectively.

The Department of Infectious Diseases treats a variety of conditions caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Specialisation includes managing both common and complex infections, including those in immunocompromised patients and transplant-related infections.

• HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Tuberculosis (TB)
• Resistant bacterial infections
• Hospital acquired infections (HAIs)
• Transplant infectious diseases (ID): These infections can affect organ transplant recipients due to their weekend immune systems.
• Infections in immune compromised hosts
• Fungal infections

The Department of Infectious Diseases sets the standards for hospital operations, focusing on personal and ward hygiene, as well as infection screening. Close collaboration with the Department of Microbiology ensures monitoring of infections and efforts to prevent the spread of communicable diseases within the hospital.

The hospital has been designed to minimize the risk of infection. Operation theatres are equipped with over 20 air exchanges, laminar airflow systems, and modular designs to ensure optimal infection control. Additionally, the intensive care units or ICUs feature single-patient cubicles, with negative isolation rooms for infectious patients and positive isolation rooms for immunocompromised individuals. Furthermore, an automated blood culture system and the state-of-the-art Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight (MALDO-TOF) system helps enable rapid identification of organisms from cultures.

The nursing teams, engineering services, housekeeping staff, Central Sterile Supplies Department (CSSD), and state-of-the-art microbiology lab collaborate to ensure the hospital remains infection-free.

In addition, to infection control, a comprehensive range of diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, including advanced molecular biology tests and drug levels are provided.