AIIMS study reveals risk of blood infection from hospital treatment tubes

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): When a person is very sick and is admitted to the hospital, the doctors put many types of tubes in his body for treatment. One of these is the 'catheter'… It is a very thin tube. It is put in the veins of the patient or any part of the body so that medicine can be given, blood can be taken out, urine can be taken out or the body can get the necessary fluid and nutrition. But now doctors and scientists are expressing serious concern that these catheters are now proving to be dangerous for the patients.

A new study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has revealed that serious blood infections are spreading among patients through catheters used during treatment in hospitals. This infection is called Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI) in medical language. When this infection spreads, dangerous germs start spreading through the blood in the body, which can worsen the patient's condition. These germs are usually found in the hospital environment and sometimes become so strong that even normal antibiotics do not work on them.

This AIIMS study has been published in a medical journal named 'The Lancet Global Health', in which it was told that data was collected from 200 ICU units of 54 hospitals across the country from 2017 to 2024. During this period, blood infection was confirmed in 8,629 cases and an average of 8.83 patients got infected every 1,000 central line-days. The highest number of cases were recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic i.e. in 2020-21, when the pressure of patients in hospitals was very high and there was also a shortage of staff.

Research also found that the major reason for these infections is the high number of patients in the ICU, negligence in hygiene rules and not following the necessary precautions related to catheters. Due to this, patients not only have to stay in the hospital for a long time, but their treatment cost also increases. These dangers can be avoided if the catheters are used thoughtfully and carefully, the staff gets proper training, and strict rules for preventing infection are implemented in hospitals.