It is alarming to know that intensive care units (ICUs) in the country's hospitals are unknowingly serving as breeding grounds of refractory drug-resistant bacteria. Difficult to treat, these bacteria prey on newly admitted patients, according to two researches carried out by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), who were free from these deadly microorganisms. The icddr,b researches found that 53 per cent of such patients get infected by these bacteria while under treatment in the ICUs and more concerning is the fact that 90 per cent of the infected patients die. Instead of helping serious patients recover from their original complications, these hospital facilities infect them and, in majority cases, cause their death. Patients with serious complications are admitted to ICUs and if those facilities act as a killing field, the management and maintenance of the specialised health units are deeply suspect.
Generally, increasing resistance to antibiotics has posed a grave threat to medical science. These proliferating refractory germs and their exploits in the ICUs, as revealed by the icddr,b studies, only make the matter more nightmarish so far as the cure from serious diseases is concerned. There is definitely a need for a thorough review of the whole ICU operation and maintenance system. Admittedly, cleanliness and maintenance of machines and equipment are not a plus point of the public hospitals in particular. Stray cats roam about freely, cockroaches beeline on floors and walls and also the washroom facilities are extremely poor and unhygienic. The environment, more often than not, is nauseous. This sets the tone of operation and maintenance of the ICUs as well. Thus, there is nothing to be surprised if patients acquire additional health complications at the medical facilities. In case of infections in ICUs, patients are more likely to die than recover. This explains the 90 per cent casualty at such facilities.
The good news is that remedies to the problem of infections from bacteria unresponsive to medical care in the ICUs are available. Prevention and control of infections from bacteria can be enforced. The answer to the problem lies in regular and meticulous enforcement of degermification. A comprehensive degerming regime has to be attained leaving no room for bacteria to infect patients admitted to hospitals or ICUs. The icddr,b studies confirm this positive development. Given the sensitivity of care in ICUs, introduction of a desirable degerming system can be made mandatory for all hospitals---public or private.
Now that the icddr,b has exposed the fallibility of facilities dedicated to treating the more complicated health complaints, it is time for the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to devise, in consultation with experts in the field, a degermification manual or guidelines for hospitals to comply with. Hospitals, their ICU units in particular, must ensure that during treatment health facilities do not give patients additional diseases that claim lives. The DGHS should issue instructions for all hospitals to this effect. In general, hospitals and all health facilities including pathological laboratories and diagnostic centres should be instructed to go by the rules in order to fight the drug-resistant or antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A national campaign against such deadly germs can be launched to drive home the message.