Imran Khan’s Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, recently knocked the doors of PGI’s Mycology division, Department of Medical Microbiology, to get a sample tested for fungal infection, the first such case from the neighbouring country. The sample tested positive and results were conveyed back. Doctors in Singapore too aren’t behind to avail the PGI’s expertise. A case of fungal infections had been sent for consultation by them too. Receiving around 600 samples for testing fungal infections every year from various centres across the country and abroad, the Mycology division has now got the distinction of being a ‘WHO collaborating centre for research and reference on fungi of medical importance’. The division will now undertake collaborative research in the field of fungal diseases by developing a network with South-East Asian laboratories, provide referral services and collect medically significant fungi and supply them to scientists on request. Professor A Chakrabarti, a senior faculty of the department, says PGI has been able to attain excellence in the field of detection of fungal infections because “it conducts the world’s highest number of autopsies in non-medico legal cases.”“Since the number of autopsies cross 800 a year at the hospital, we are able to detect deaths due to fungal infections easily. Five per cent of total deaths are caused due to fungal infections. If autopsies are not conducted, these infections would not be detected,” said Prof Charkrabarti. The Mycology department would now receive samples for testing fungal infections from 16 laboratories across the country and also from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Nepal. “Fungal infections cannot be prevented and one can catch the infection anywhere. These infections should be diagnosed at the earliest so that precise treatment can begin. But the problem in the South-East Asian region is that no proper diagnostic facilities are available. Doctors are not aware and hence the number of deaths caused by these infections is high,” adds the professor. Another dept designatedWHO has also designated the Department of Pulmonary Medicine at PGI as a collaborating centre for research and capacity building. The designation is operative for four years, which will be extended after review.
