Infectious Diseases

Overview

The Department of Infectious Diseases at the Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital addresses bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections. Our infectious disease specialists have extensive expertise in managing a wide range of conditions, including infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria, transplant-related infections, and infections in immunocompromised patients. We also have teams specialising in tropical medicine, travel medicine, adult vaccinations, and HIV treatment.

Our department is the cornerstone of the hospital’s infection control committee, dedicated towards managing healthcare-associated infections.

The Department of Infectious Diseases is well equipped to provide a wide range of inpatient, outpatient, and referral consultation services for the diagnosis and management of difficult-to-treat infections and aspires to become a leading referral centre for infectious diseases, tropical medicine, and travel medicine.

Our Services
Technology & Infrastructure
Conditions We Treat

Our department provides specialised services for diagnosing, treating, and managing a wide range of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections. The team offers expert care for complex infections, supports infection control measures, and provides guidance on travel medicine, vaccination, and preventive healthcare.

Tropical Medicine: Our tropical medicine team focuses on diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, such as malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya, and leptospirosis. We offer services such as consultation, diagnosis, and treatment plans tailored to the specific needs of patients, ensuring the effective management and treatment of tropical diseases.
Travel Medicine: Our travel medicine team provides pre-travel consultations, vaccinations, and prophylactic medications, targeting health concerns arising from international travel, such as yellow fever, typhoid, and Japanese encephalitis, based on the traveller’s destination, ensuring that they have a safe and healthy journey.
Adult Vaccination: Our adult vaccination team offers personalised vaccination schedules based on individual risk factors, health conditions, and lifestyle, targeting 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.
Infection Control: Our infection control team aims to prevent the spread of infections within healthcare settings through the formulation of rigorous protocols, hand hygiene education, and appropriate treatment in terms of right medicine, correct dosage, and duration of treatment.
HIV Treatment: Our HIV treatment team focuses on individuals living with HIV infection/AIDS; a wide range of services, including diagnosis, antiretroviral therapy, prevention of opportunistic infections, and ongoing infection monitoring, are offered.
Transplantation-Associated Infectious Disease Treatment: The transplantation-related infectious disease team focuses on infections commonly seen in organ transplant recipients. The team specialises in the early detection and management of opportunistic infections, and preventive strategies, including pre-transplant screening, vaccination, and tailored antimicrobial prophylaxis to minimise infection risks.
Clinical Microbiology: Our clinical microbiology team focusses on the identification of pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites). Using this information, our team helps guide targeted treatment and supports infection prevention through antimicrobial susceptibility testing and outbreak monitoring. Additionally, our team actively participates in medication management programmes to combat resistance effectively.

The Department of Infectious Diseases sets high standards for hospital operations, focusing on personal and ward hygiene, as well as infection screening.

Close collaboration with the Department of Microbiology ensures the monitoring of infections and efforts to prevent the spread of communicable diseases within the hospital.
The hospital has been designed to minimise the risk of infection. Our operation theatres are equipped with over 20 air exchanges per hour, laminar airflow systems, and modular designs to ensure optimal infection control.
The intensive care units feature single-patient cubicles, with negative isolation rooms for infectious patients and positive isolation rooms for immunocompromised individuals.
We are equipped with an automated blood culture system and a state-of-the-art Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation–Time of Flight system (MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry) enable the 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 that the hospital remains infection-free.
A comprehensive range of tests for detecting infectious diseases, including advanced molecular biology tests and tests for monitoring drug levels, are available.

Our department treats a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections. We specialise in managing common and complex infections.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection: Infection with HIV, a virus that attacks the immune system, weakening it and reducing its ability to fight infections; if left untreated, HIV infection progresses to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Tuberculosis (TB): A serious contagious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis; it primarily affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) and sometimes, other body parts, such as the brain, kidneys, bones, or lymph nodes (extrapulmonary TB).
Infections caused by Drug-Resistant Bacteria: Bacteria that are able to survive in the presence of various antibiotics or other drugs often cause serious infections, as these are often difficult to treat. The most notable example of a drug-resistant bacterium is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs): Also called nosocomial infections, these are infections that occur in a healthcare setting (for example, a hospital or health centre) after the patient was admitted. MRSA infection is one of the most common example of an HAI.
Transplantation-Associated Infectious Diseases: Infections that affect organ transplant recipients due to their weakened immune systems.
Infections in Immunocompromised Hosts: Like transplantation-associated infectious diseases, these are infections occurring in patients whose immune systems are compromised due to one or more factors, such as pre-existing infections or immune-suppressing medications.
Fungal Infections: Infections caused by pathogenic fungi most commonly affect the skin and nails; in some cases, they affect other parts of the body (lungs or the bloodstream) and can be life-threatening.