BIDI

Today we traveled to the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute (BIDI) to spend the day learning about HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The institute was founded in 1960 and has 250 beds. It serves as a general hospital for the local area, but also as a referral hospital for specific diseases such as cholera, rabies, AIDS, SARS, avian influenza, H1N1, and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The institute is home to 54 doctors, 229 nurses, and 16 pharmacist as well as other healthcare professionals.

Once we delved into the conversation about AIDS, it was clear to see that this hospital has a goal to reduce the incidence of disease. They provide free HIV testing twice per year for patients, free condoms at all times, and same day lab results, as they understand the difficulty some patients have getting to the hospital. However, they have no HIV clinic, which is such a great way to prevent discrimination, as the patients aren’t forced to see a specific doctor. What’s amazing is that each doctor is actually considered an HIV specialist.

We then talked about tuberculosis, as it is the most common opportunistic infection in patients with HIV/AIDS. When patients come to the hospital, they are asked if they experience these criteria: chronic cough for two or more weeks, prolonged fever with weight loss, or contact with an active TB case. If so, the patient is triaged differently in order to prevent transmission. The care they take in preventing transmission is outstanding. These patients are then brought to the TB clinic, which serves as a one-stop service for infection control.

After lunch, we were able to tour the isolation rooms that were recently installed. Students were able to volunteer to put on personal protective equipment as the nurses would before seeing a patient in the isolation rooms. Taking off the equipment was a bit harder to master, but Kayla and Tiffany did well!

We then returned to the classroom for some information on emergency preparedness as well as more in depth HIV and TB treatment. The pharmacists have a large role in emergency preparedness, such as developing guidelines, selecting pharmaceuticals for treatment, collaborating with doctors to select treatment, and even creating a list of pharmacist’s contacts if needed for assistance.

After this lecture, we were able to take a look at their TB clinic and ward. The negative pressure in the rooms helps prevent transmission. We also we able to see rooms that could hold more than one patient, however they have to have the same infection and be the same sex to be placed in those rooms. It was amazing to see how committed they are to protecting employees as well as the patients they treat. It is clear to see that this hospital has very high standards when it comes to preventing transmission of disease.

We finished the night off with a bit of a celebration as Dean Tanzer just arrived in Bangkok this morning. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!