KARACHI, May 28: Proliferation of ventilators in the hospitals is registered to be giving false hope to patients while factually compounding the problems of infections. The observation was made by the experts during a scientific session organized by the Chest Diseases Department of Liaquat National Hospital here on Saturday to discuss the current management strategies and treatment of pneumonia.

Dr Mosavir Ansarie, Dr Safdar Ghayur Khan, Dr Naseem Salahuddin and Dr Mohammad Hussain explicitly discussed factors contributory to acquisition of pneumonia including hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-induced pneumonia and community acquired pneumonia.

They strongly recommended need for institutional and departmental level meetings on regular basis at each of the health care centres and hospitals to discuss the above mentioned aspects thus protecting patients against infections, particularly pneumonia.

During the session, an extensive data was presented by Dr Safdar Ghayur Khan related to hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia. The expert discussed the bacterial strains causing resistance to antibiotics and referred to their solutions. He also presented a comparative analysis of the practices adopted by local medical practitioners and the international guidelines.

Dr Naseem Salahuddin deliberated upon opportunistic infections of lungs that occur because of compromised defence mechanism and immune system of vulnerable individuals. The senior doctor said that diagnosis of the condition required a high level of awareness and appropriate use of diagnostic tools.

Referring to community-acquired pneumonia, Dr Mohammad Hussain discussed diagnosis of the most common organisms that were responsible for causing lower respiratory tract infections and rationale of using suitable antibiotics.

Dr Ali Arsalan and Dr Mir Salim also participated in the discussion.

Earlier, LNH Medical Director Dr Salim Faridi highlighted services rendered by the hospital as a postgraduate teaching centre with equal focus on continuing medical education for local general physicians besides specialized medical education and training programmes for those pursuing higher education. —APP