The WHO India country office through the IPC National Coordination Unit, National Centre for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India organised a 2-day national consultation to Develop National IPC Curriculum in Delhi on 25th and 26th June 2024. The School of Medical Sciences represented by Prof. B.R. Shamanna and Honorary Professor Dr. Ranga Reddy Burri who is also the President of the Infection Control Academy of India were special invitees to this 2-day consultation to share the experience of running one of the most highly subscribed collaborative Diploma in Infection Prevention & Control program through the Centre for Distance & Virtual Learning to assist and aid the development of the National IPC curriculum for various health care personnel for India & scale it to low middle income countries.
Infection prevention and control (IPC) is important to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) which are a major public health problem. HAIs contribute to spread of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in health care facilities and also lead to increase in use of antimicrobials thereby accelerating the emergence of AMR. They are linked with longer hospital stays thus incurring increased cost burden on patients and their family as well as on the health system. Implementation of good IPC practices requires skilled human resources at all levels of healthcare facilities. Currently, the IPC trainings are fragmented across various work streams, disciplines and there is no uniform national IPC curriculum for guiding trainings of health workers. The aim of the consultation was to review the existing IPC curriculum for different cadres of health workers and develop a comprehensive IPC curriculum for all health workers.
The consultation provided a learning and sharing platform across many Indian institutions and Africa and group work sessions organised developed draft curriculum and competencies for different cadres of health care personnel on IPC.
The School of Medical Sciences and Infection Control Academy of India have been running a very successful 1-year Diploma in IPC program since 2020 of which out of 320 who took the program thus far 152 have been declared successful. The learners have the opportunity to complete the program over 3 years from the time they have been admitted. 15% of the students have come from Gulf Coordinating Countries. The 2024 has attracted students from Africa as well. The benefit of this course has been the virtual conduct of it for the whole year with an immersive project component at the student location.
The visit also provided an opportunity to network and invite participants to the forthcoming “Global South Conference on Infection Prevention Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship (G-SPARC 2024) which is scheduled to take place from the 3rd to the 5th of October, 2024, in Hyderabad, India. UoH is a joint organiser for this global conference. The Director General of Health Services, Government of India, Prof. Atul Goel who is also the Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Prof. M.Srinivas were requested and they whole heartedly agreed to their own and many experts participation at G-SPARC 2024. More details are available on: https://www.g-sparc.com.