KARACHI – The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) has started running different tests in its various wards to ascertain the presence and intensity of Acinetobacter – a lethal and infectious agent contracted during treatment (nosocomial pathogen), Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources told Pakistan Today that the AKUH administration has started conducted the tests in all the wards and corridors of the hospital to find the incidence of Acinetobacter, with the intensive care unit (ICU), critical care unit (CCU), coronary intensive care unit (CICU), and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) among the wards being thoroughly investigated.
“The entire exercise involves the use of MacConkey Agar, a culture medium, which is designed to grow gram-negative bacteria. These bacteria, in gram stain testing, change colours to red or pink when a counterstain is added after the crystal violet. The hospital administration has placed laboratory sample dishes in many of wards,” sources explained.
While Acinetobacter has been prowling the premises of the AKUH since long, the hospital administration never publicly acknowledged the presence of such deadly bacteria. After a story published in Pakistan Today’s December 21 issue, however, the hospital administration decided to include clinical testing of all floors, walls, air as well as various important wards in its internal audit.
Internal auditing is a routine procedure conducted by the AKUH Quality Control Department, sources said, explaining that this inspection is held every three months to check the status of equipment used in all clinical laboratories – microbiology lab, histopathology lab, blood bank, haematology lab, molecular pathology lab, biochemistry lab, Cytogentics, and to check the condition of furniture, windows, floors, fire extinguishers and carpets.
The audit also checks whether AKUH staff are wearing lab-coats and masks as part of upholding international standards to maintain JCI certification. “Some 60 lab staff employed in at least seven of the hospital’s clinical laboratories are put through these standard tests, but stringent checking does not extend to ascertain any diseases contracted while they are on the job,” sources said.
Those at high risk of contracting diseases and bacteria, including the deadly Acinetobacter bacterium, comprise pathologists, supervisors, resident doctors, trainees, helpers, technologists and assistant technologists.
