Patient Isolation in the High-Prevalence Setting: Challenges with Regard to Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacilli

Abstract

This paper discusses the challenges in patient isolation and maintaining isolation facilities to manage infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) at the Tata Medical Center, a newly built modern cancer care centre in West Bengal, India, where MDRO infections comprise majority of infections. Maintaining isolation facilities is a resource-intensive operation, and in resource-constrained settings such as this Center where the priority is to deliver a degree of care to the majority, high-quality measures such as providing an isolation facility that meets international standards may not be economically viable or practically feasible. It is suggested that alternative solutions need to be explored in high-prevalence settings.