 My name is Dr. Farhan Fazal. I am an infectious disease specialist. Let me start today's topic of discussing what is an infectious disease department. Start off by starting off with what is infectious disease. These are diseases caused by microorganisms like bacteria, fungus, viruses and parasites. As we all know, India is gripped with a large group of infections and they cause a lot of morbidity and mortality, causing increased cost on healthcare. India tops among the infections in terms of malaria, dengue, HIV and tuberculosis. Now you might ask what is an infectious department deal with. We as infectious disease specialists meet all kinds of doctors. We meet the cardiologists when they have infections of the heart. We help the neurologists or the neurosurgeons treating infections of the brain, meningitis or cerebral malaria or brain abscesses. We deal with the pulmonologists when they have to treat pneumonia. We also meet the surgeons when they have post-surgery infections or pre-surgery infections. We also meet the orthopedicians where they have infections of the bone. And we also meet the obstetations when they have got infections after surgery or during the pregnancy period. Candidly we are also called the fever doctors where most of our references are because fever is not settling with the regular therapy. We also deal with immunocompromised patients such as HIV, patients who are on chemotherapy, patients who are transplant patients on immunosuppressive therapy and on steroids for various autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, SLE and vasculitis. Now these groups are special because infections in them can be rapidly progressive and deadly. Also a small infection to a normal person with good immunity will not be a big problem for that person. But a similar kind of infection in immunocompromised patients can create havoc and can be dangerous. This is where our expertise come into the picture. We understand the immunity level of the patient and the infection that can probably be caused by it. Also another important part we play is hospital acquired infections. You might have heard many times your family members saying that the infection is very very resistant to the antibiotics that are there. And also these antibiotics are very limited and few options are available to treat these infections. This is where we come into the picture. We try to understand the microbiology or the appropriateness of the test and also give the patient the right dose, the right duration of antibiotics and the right root of antibiotics. This will eventually help the patient to have a better outcome. We also deal with travel medicine that is patients Indians are travelling everywhere these days. They travel to the US, to Middle East, Africa. Many a times for the visa purpose they require vaccinations such as those for Africa and the Middle East during Hajj. Also when patients are returning from their travel they might get infections which are not commonly seen in India. Like fungal infections in the US or Middle Eastern viruses or cystosomiasis from African and Middle East countries which are not commonly seen in India. So the awareness or the understanding of this epidemiology or which infections are present where is extremely important for a better outcome. Also we deal with adult vaccinations that is patients who can be given vaccines. Normal people can be given vaccines to prevent infections. Most popularly influenza vaccines. A lot of us should be taking those vaccines because influenza can be prevented with the vaccine and they have got good efficacy. Apart from that we also have vaccinations to prevent pneumonia and chickenpox and various other vaccinations are available which can be taken to prevent infections. The next point comes into antimicrobial resistance. As we all know everybody who gets a sore throat gets an antibiotic and most of the time is the public who demands an antibiotic. So let me take this point head on and say that all fevers or all infections do not need antibiotics. The reason I say this is the antibiotics which are working before a few infections are not working for the same infections today. You might be remembering typhoid was very easy to treat in the yester years maybe 10 or 15 years back. But now typhoid has become very very difficult to treat and it takes longer for the treatment to work. Why is that? Because we have misusing the antibiotics. Hence whenever you have a fever get in touch with an infectious specialist and see how and when can be given antibiotics. Because all fevers do not treat infections all fevers do not need antibiotics. Antibiotics save lives so we need to save antibiotics. So in case you have any queries regarding a long term fever that is not going or a vaccination that you think might help you or you are planning to travel to a country or have traveled to a country and want to come back. Meet us at the infectious department at KMC minding.