title: Blood culture in India: a proposal for a national programme for early detection of sepsis.
abstract: Septicaemia is a major contributor of mortality. Blood culture is the essential investigation for the management of sepsis. Due to lack of resources blood culture is an irregularly used investigation in India. A three-tier level of development is being proposed to develop the blood culture based national programme for early detection of sepsis. The plan envisages the establishment of manual blood culture based elementary system in the health centre and district hospital level (Level 1), direct Gram stain and direct antibiotic sensitivity testing from the "positive" blood culture broths at the medical college hospital level (Level 2) and development of automated methods, enhancement of quality control and safety measures, clinical liaison and re-orientation of microbiology training at the tertiary care centre level (Level 3).
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Health Protection Agency, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green East, Birmingham B9 5SS, United Kingdom. drsanjay1970@hotmail.com
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
mesh_terms: D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000191:economics; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D011050:Policy Making; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D016730:Program Development; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000191:economics; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis*