India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Bloodstream infections that come from using catheters in the hospital are common in the ICU in India. They are often caused by germs that fight off drugs, a study from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi finds.
The study, in The Lancet Global Health, points out the big problem of germs that don't die from normal drugs. These infections make people stay in the hospital longer, raise the cost of care, and put more pressure on India's health system.
The researchers looked at infections that happen when germs get into the blood through a big vein via a catheter. They got data from 200 ICUs in 54 hospitals over seven years. From May 2017 to April 2024, they found 8,629 such infections, tracking over three million patient-days and nearly a million catheter-days. The infection rate was 8.83 per 1,000 catheter-days.
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Infections were highest in 2020-21, during the COVID-19 crisis. This was when ICUs faced too much work, not enough staff and weak infection control, raising the risk.
The study shows we must watch and control infections better, especially in places with less money, where keeping track of infections costs a lot. The researchers said watching these rates can help make better plans to keep infections low in India's health system.
This is the first big, well-run report on these infections in India. It gives important ideas on how to make the health system better, stop these infections, and save lives.
