Overview

The department of Microbiology at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital has come a long way since its inception in the year 1972 with main objective and focus to guide and impart innovative education along with diagnostic facility at par with international standards. During its infancy the department was headed by stalwarts like Dr (Mrs) H Prabhakar, Dr WC Deb and Dr HL Chopra. In 1983, Dr.(Mrs) Swaran Khurana took over the reins of the department and it was under her stewardship that the department got its Postgraduate status. The department further progressed (1998-2020) under the guidance of Dr Shobha Ram to Dr Urmil Mohan Dr Raj Kumar and Dr Deepinder Chhina.

Dr Veenu Gupta took over the charge in December 2020. The department is gaining new heights under her able leadership.

Academics

The department of Microbiology at DMCH aims to provide teaching and training of the students in the concerned speciality admitted in Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana under various courses, as per curriculum designed by National Medical Council, India and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences. The team of faculty members are dedicated and committed to meet their scope of services and use innovative teaching methodologies to make the subject interesting. The department has been adjudged as the best non clinical teaching department based on student feedback for the year. The department conducts inter departmental PG teaching. 

 All the faculty members are well trained in various educational courses (Basic course workshop in Medical Education Technologies, CISP & Revised basic course workshop -National Medical Commission).

In addition to provide quality education, to the budding professionals in the field of microbiology, the department has trained more 50 Postgraduate students who all are well placed in various medical colleges & Private setup. The department has around 250-300 research publications in various National/International indexed journals.

Conferences

Department has organized various local, regional and national conferences/CME to disseminate the knowledge and awareness of infectious diseases viz 

-CME on “Tuberculosis Update (IAMM)” 2007.

-CME on “NEEDLE STICK INJURY” 2007.

-CME on “STERILISATION” June 2007.

-The department conducts inter departmental PG teaching.

-Sensitization workshop on HIV/AIDS and ICTC.

-Hospital Infection Prevention week 2008,

-Workshop cum CME on Basic technique in Medical Mycology and Yeast Identification 2008,

-North-West chapter IAMM MICROCON 2018,

-Hospital Infection Control Conference HICCON-2019,

-GISICON 2019 – 7th National Biennial Conference (Gastrointestinal Infection Society of India),

-CME-Tropical fever-2021, CME- Combating Antimicrobial Resistance -2021 etc.

-The department is regularly organising awareness talks, poster/slogan writing and quiz competition on World Hand Hygiene, World AIDS day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Antimicrobial Week etc.

-The department is quarterly publishing E- HICC NEWS BULLETIN & MICROBIOLOGY NEWS LETTER for internal circulation.

Research Projects

·        An operation Research project PIDOPS entitled “Pan India Distribution of Pneumococcal Serotypes (PIDOPS) causing Invasive Pneumococcal Disease and Pneumonia in children between 6 weeks to 5 years and their antimicrobial resistance”

·        A multicenter Prospective Hospital based Surveillance to estimate the burden of Rotavirus gastroenteritis in children less than five years of age in India” 2011-12

·        Association between Toxocara canis infection & epilepsy: a collaborative, twin (community prevalence & hospital based incidence) case control study.

·        A multicenter observational study of Candidemia among ICU patients in India under Society of Indian Human and Animal Mycologists (SIHAM).

·        Project entitled “Comparison of Ziehl- Neelsen and Auramine Phenol staining method to detect acid fast bacilli in sputum smear” Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)

·        ICMR project Multicenter observational study of candidaemia cases with special reference to Candida auris candidaemia among ICU patients in India. (In process)

·        A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase 3 study of safety and efficacy of AR-301 as adjust therapy to antibiotics in the treatment of Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)caused by     S aureus.

Staff

All laboratory staff is qualified and well trained to meet the needs of their job profile. All technical staff undergoes regular extensive hands on training with respect to testing, quality control and quality assurance as relevant.

Quality

The department is dedicated and committed to provide diagnostic services giving top priority to quality. Laboratory ensures accurate and reliable results by implementing the established, verified and validated protocols. The department is regularly participating in internal & external quality assurance program and interlab comparison (ILC). The Microbiology department provides results of investigations (800-1000 daily) within the defined time frame and informs critical reports to the clinicians involved in treatment of infectious diseases and patient care.

The lab is ISO 9001:2012 Certified (since 2007) and its molecular diagnostic Facility (RT-PCR) is NABL accredited with ICMR approved COVID-19 RTPCR

Infection Control

The department of Microbiology is actively involved in surveillance and control of hospital acquired infection (HAI) by establishing endemic baseline infection rates, identifying outbreaks and monitoring antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Quarterly antibiogram is prepared by the Microbiology and circulated in the hospital. Apart from surveillance of HAI, the environmental surveillance activities are also carried out which includes air sampling in critical and semi critical areas. Information regarding alert organisms (MRSA, VISA, VRE MDR, CRE & ESBL producers) is sent to the area through ICT to take appropriate measures for infection prevention

 National Programs

Department is actively involved in national programmes run by MoH & FW which include National tuberculosis elimination program (NTEP), Integrated Disease surveillance program (IDSP) and Integrated Counselling and Testing centre (ICTC).

 Infrastructure and scope of investigative services

The department is also catering to the need of health care professional and patients in providing world class round the clock diagnostic facility in their concerned speciality for the better management of infectious diseases. All the investigative labs are well equipped with the latest state of the art equipments in parallel with the international standards.