India’s Health Leaders Push Stronger Hospital Hygiene to Combat Drug-Resistant Infections

By Ojoma Akor

Healthcare institutions and medical experts in India are calling for stronger hospital hygiene standards and improved training for frontline cleaning workers as part of efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and prevent healthcare-associated infections.

The call comes ahead of Clean Hospitals Day, marked globally on October 20, under the theme, “Empowered Teams, Reduced Risk.”

The campaign follows findings from a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), cited in a press release announcing the initiative, which reportedly found that 38 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) patients infected with drug-resistant pathogens died within 14 days.

The participating institutions said the findings underscore the need to strengthen healthcare environmental hygiene as a critical component of infection prevention and control, particularly in surgical units, intensive care wards and other high-risk clinical settings.

They also stressed that preventing infections requires more than access to antibiotics, arguing that properly trained cleaning personnel, effective disinfection and safe biomedical waste management are essential to protecting patients.

Hygiene workers critical to patient safety

BrainS Super Specialty Hospital in Bengaluru and the Pragathi Rural Development Trust in Andhra Pradesh are among the institutions promoting improved environmental hygiene practices through the campaign.

Dr N.K. Venkataramana, founder chairman and chief neurosurgeon at BrainS Super Specialty Hospital, said maintaining a rigorously controlled sterile environment was essential to preventing infections during neurological surgery.

“When dealing with multi-drug resistant superbugs, our primary shield is a rigorously maintained sterile environment,” he said, adding that specialized training for hygiene teams could help protect patients from potentially fatal postoperative infections.

Dr Pavithra V, chief consultant in neuroanaesthesia and neurocritical care at the hospital, also emphasized the importance of maintaining air and surface quality in anesthesia and critical care units.

She said proper surface disinfection and hand hygiene were fundamental to preventing cross-contamination and protecting vulnerable patients from environmental pathogens.

The campaign seeks to reposition environmental services personnel, including hospital cleaners and housekeeping staff, as integral members of clinical infection prevention and control teams rather than treating cleaning as a routine support function.

Rural facilities urged to strengthen hygiene standards

The initiative also highlights the need to improve hygiene practices in rural healthcare facilities, where gaps in training, equipment and waste management can undermine infection prevention efforts.

Dr R. Nagaraja Naidu, chairman of the Pragathi Rural Development Trust, said standardized hygiene education and practical support for frontline workers were essential to reducing the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in rural communities.

“Maintaining robust hygiene standards in rural districts is our first line of defense against infectious outbreaks,” he said.

He added that effective prevention depended on equipping frontline workers with appropriate technical tools, continuous training and sound biomedical waste management procedures.

The Trust works on rural healthcare access, sanitation, preventive medicine and community health initiatives, including efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infections and deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance.

Three-pronged strategy to reduce infections

As part of the Clean Hospitals Day campaign, participating institutions are promoting a three-pronged approach to strengthening environmental hygiene and patient safety.

The first involves standardizing technical training for environmental services personnel, including instruction on appropriate disinfectant use, chemical contact times, pathogen transmission, and targeted microbial disinfection.

The second focuses on improving the recognition and professional standing of hygiene workers by integrating their observations and contributions into routine infection prevention and control audits.

The third involves strengthening collaboration between cleaning personnel and clinical teams to identify contamination risks, monitor infection control practices and address the presence of multidrug-resistant organisms before they threaten patients.

The campaign’s organizers said closer coordination among environmental services staff, infection control specialists, clinicians and hospital administrators would help build a stronger culture of safety in healthcare facilities.

Call for stronger infection prevention measures

Clean Hospitals Day aims to highlight the role of environmental hygiene in reducing healthcare-associated infections and limiting the spread of drug-resistant pathogens.

The campaign encourages healthcare professionals, infection prevention specialists, environmental hygiene workers and hospital administrators to commit to strict hand hygiene, effective environmental cleaning, safe waste management and prompt reporting of hazards.

Its promotional toolkit, available in 22 languages, is designed to help healthcare facilities raise awareness and strengthen staff engagement in infection prevention.

As antimicrobial resistance continues to threaten the effectiveness of medicines used to treat infections, the initiative’s organizers are urging healthcare institutions to treat environmental hygiene as a core patient safety priority.

They argue that empowering the workers responsible for keeping healthcare environments clean, while providing them with evidence-based training and integrating them into clinical safety systems, can help reduce preventable infections and improve patient outcomes.