Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is exploring the possibility of prodding the Indian pharmaceutical companies and scientists to develop candidate vaccine and anti-sera against bacterial infection in the burns and ICU patients, in the wake of increasing instances of hospital acquired infections (HAIs).

“There is a need for an intervention for the prevention of the bacterial infection in the burns and ICU patients. Interventions in the form of a vaccine and/or anti-sera are likely to produce better results and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with these infections,’’ ICMR sources said.

The Council has invited proposals for the development of vaccine from scientists of recognized research institutions, universities, medical colleges etc. in the country. After review, the investigators of the selected proposals would be invited to submit the full proposals and later the project would be assisted by the government agency.

Hospital acquired infections, including those in the ICU, are a cause of growing concern world across. Affecting at least 7 million people per year in the US and Europe, healthcare-associated infections are now recognized as a critical public health issue and continue to be a major cause of morbidity, mortality and excess healthcare cost. Their prevalence is continually rising due to increasingly sophisticated medical treatment and surgical procedures, international travel and the overuse or misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. In the United States, HAIs affect approximately 1.7 million patients each year, resulting in 99,000 deaths and an estimated $30 billion in healthcare costs, according to the reports.

There is no official data about the gravity of the problem in India, which is more vulnerable due to varied reasons, according to the experts in the field. A study held some years back in a burn unit of a tertiary care referral centre in North India gives some indications to the problem.

Seventy-one patients developed 59 hospital-acquired infections and the infection density was reported to be 36.2 infections per 1000 patient days. Invasive wound infections were the commonest (33), followed by blood stream infections (22), urinary tract infections (3) and pneumonia (1). Infection contributed to 75 per cent of observed mortality. On logistic regression analysis, infected patients were more likely to die as well as stay longer in the hospital as compared to non-infected patients. Infected patients also had more central venous lines inserted, the study said.