NephroPlus, the country’s largest single specialty healthcare major providing dialysis, is concerned over increasing cross infections hampering the quality of kidney patient life during treatment.

On the occasion of the World Kidney day observed annually on March 12, the country’s largest Dialysis Provider Network with 35 centres across 11 states in India is apprehensive on this issue which puts a patient’s improved quality of life at risk.

“Cross infections with Hep C, Hep B and HIV have become rampant in dialysis units in India today. Various estimates peg the annual cross infection incidence rates in India between 20 and 34 per cent. This is, in fact, equivalent to a patient with kidney failure walking in for dialysis treatment and walking out with another, which is more severe and more life-threatening,” Vikram Vuppala, CEO & Founder, NephroPlus  told Pharmabiz in an email.

“Such cross-infections complicate a dialysis patient’s life immeasurably. A transplant becomes much more problematic because often, these viruses flare up during the immunosuppressant therapy prescribed for organ recipients. It is difficult to contain this damage because it impacts other organs such as the liver,” he added.

The Centre for Disease Control, USA has issued guidelines on prevention of cross-infections in dialysis units. These norms forbid use of common trolleys citing it as an important source of cross infections. Unfortunately, most centres in India continue to use common trolleys which house the set of consumables that are used to start and terminate dialysis sessions. Few centres, such as NephroPlus have totally banned common trolleys and have successfully minimised the rates of cross infections, he pointed out.

Another source of cross-infections is the Reprocessing Area of the dialysis unit. Faulty reprocessing protocols lead to an epidemic of cross infections in dialysis units. The best solution is to halt reuse of any consumable. “However, in India where many patients cannot even afford dialysis sessions, it would be difficult to expect them to bear the cost of single use of consumables like the dialyzer. Therefore it is critical to adhere and implement stringent reprocessing protocols and prevent cross-infections,”noted the NephroPlus chief.

There are several other steps that dialysis units could adopt to save their patients from the scourge of cross-infections. Proper wiping of machine and bed surfaces with a sterilant between two dialysis sessions, appropriate disinfection of machines after a session, enforcing virology testing as per the guidelines and proper use of Universal Precautions. “It is the intent of the dialysis service provider to strictly adopt much of the precautions which are neither a rocket-science nor a novel technique. Instead, the protocols are well-documented and proven systems. Ultimately, it boils down to how well these are implemented and audited,” stated the NephroPlus chief.