The goal  of starting the post doctoral fellowshipcourse on ‘Hospital infection control’ is to train microbiologists in various aspects of hospital infection control.

Infection Control is an essential component of any health care delivery system. Implementing infection control measures from simple hand washing to high-level disinfection of surgical instruments can prevent transmission of disease in health care settings. Though infection control was not formal medical discipline until very recently, its practice in healthcare set ups has become an obligation due to many reasons such as pressure for accountability among clinicians and laboratory professionals, the escalating cost of health care and  also for accreditation point of view . A robust Antimicrobial Stewardship program is the sine qua non of any competent and effective infection control programme of a hospital. Microbiologists play a crucial role in implementing the infection control programme.  Infection control programmes in the best of the hospitals in India are managed and headed by microbiologists. When Government of India is planning to bring the infection control as a separate learning objective for the MBBS and M.D. students, it is the need of the hour for every microbiologist to enhance their knowledge on infection control. Unfortunately, an effective and robust infection control programme is lacking in most of the hospitals in our country. One of the very important reason is lack of academic course in hospital infection control. Keeping this in mind, the Department of Microbiology is planning to start a course in ‘PDCC in Hospital infection control’ to train Medical Microbiologists in various aspects of infection control and prevention.

ELIGIBILITY: MD Microbiology

ADMISSION PROCEDURE: Through written exam (MCQ)

DURATION OF COURSE: One   year

COURSE SYLLABUS IN DETAIL

SECTION I : HOSPITAL INFECTION CONTROL

  1. Hospital infection control committee- structure and function
  2. HAI (Health care associated infection) (pathogenesis and diagnosis)
  3. HAI (Health care associated infection) Surveillance
  4. HAI (Health care associated infection) prevention/bundle care
  5. Standard precaution
    1. Hand hygiene
    2. Personal protective equipment (PPE)
  6. Transmission based precaution
  7. Biomedical Waste Management
  8. Central sterile services department (CSSD)
  9. Screening of patients/HCWs for MDROs
  10. Environmental surveillance
  11. Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) detection and prevention
  12. Laundry infection control policy
  13. Kitchen, and Pest control policy
  14. Autopsy- infection control policy while handling dead bodies
  15. Disinfection policy including disinfection testing and endoscopy reprocessing, spillage management
  16. Staff health issues
    1. Work restriction
    2. Staff Immunization
    3. Needle stick injury management
  17. Outbreak investigation
  18. Engineering control
  19. Role of biostatistics in infection control

SECTION II : ANTIMICROBIAL STEWARDSHIP  PROGRAMME (AMSP)

Sub section 1: General concepts in Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMSP)

  1. Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme –necessity and global scenario
  2. Role of Microbiology in implementing AMSP
    1. Automation
    2. Biomarkers
    3. Biofire and other rapid diagnostic methods
  3. Methods of implementation of AMSP
    1. Front end strategy (Restrictive strategy and antimicrobial cycling)
    2. Back end strategy (Prospective audit and feedback)
  4. Monitoring of AMSP
  5. Antimicrobial Agents and their PK/PD
  6. Syndromic approach for empirical therapy
  7. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST)

Sub section 2: Antimicrobial Stewardship  Programme Audit

Antimicrobial Stewardship  Programme in Medical unit

Antimicrobial Stewardship  Programme in Surgical unit

Antimicrobial Stewardship  Programme in Medical oncology unit