Inam Danish Khan
Command Hospital (EC), Kolkata, India.
Title: EMERGING ORGANISMS IN A TERTIARY HEALTHCARE SET UP IN NEW DELHI, INDIA
Biography
Biography: Inam Danish Khan
Abstract
BACKGROUND Emerging organisms are organisms that have newly appeared in a cohort/population or have existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence, geographic or host range. Recently discovered etiological agents of known diseases are also considered as emerging organisms. One tenth of all infectious diseases are attributable to emerging organisms. However, operationally defining an organism as emerging is a subjective endeavor. As emerging organisms sporadically affect a relatively small percentage of population they are not studied at large. OBJECTIVES This study was aimed at studying the frequency, sources, resistance and susceptibility profiles, and phenotypic characteristics of emerging organisms encountered at an apex tertiary care teaching and research hospital in New Delhi, India. METHODS 16918 positive isolates obtained from 66323 culture samples were included. Both manual and automated systems were used for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility. Sources of isolates, referring centers and drug resistance were noted. A literature search was done to identify reports on human pathogenicity. CONCLUSION Out of 16918 isolates, 13498 (79.78%, 95% confidence interval is 79.17% to 80.39%) were Gram negative bacteria, 3254 (19.23%, 95% CI 18.64% – 19.83%) Gram positive bacteria and 166 (0.98%, 95% confidence interval is 0.83% – 1.13%) were yeasts. A total of 122 (0.72%, 95% CI is 0.59% – 0.85%) emerging organisms were identified comprising 56 genera. Emerging organisms are likely to evade routine identification or be disregarded as non-contributory. Astute efforts directed at identification of emerging isolates, decisions by clinical microbiologists and treating physicians and containment of infection are required.