The Department of Microbiology of AIIMS Kalyani was established in October 2020. This department provide services for patient care diagnostics, Hospital Infection Control, Central sterile supplies department, Infectious diseases clinic and referrals. The department is involved in training undergraduate MBBS students, BSc Nursing students and has a proposed Postgraduate, Medical Technologist. Under the umbrella of microbiology diagnostic services, Bacteriology, Mycobacteriology, Mycology, Parasitology, Virology, and Serology laboratories are presently functional. The Department of Microbiology is engaged in research activities and setting up of a state of art molecular diagnostic laboratory. The department functions with a vision of developing itself as a state of art diagnostic facility catering to all infectious diseases in Eastern India and developing reference center for diagnosis of infectious diseases endemic to this part of the country.

Services

The Department is currently involved in diagnostic laboratory including Bacteriology, Mycobacteriology, Mycology, Parasitology, Virology, and Serology.

The Bacteriology section has automated blood culture system and manual as well as automated ID and AST system. The section is involved in culture, identification and antibacterial susceptibility from all samples and various staining methods like Gram stain, ZN stain, Albert stain etc.

The Serology section is currently processing samples for diagnosing blood borne viruses like HIV, HBV, and HCV by Rapid Immunochromatography method, and Rapid antigen test for diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Rapid diagnosis of febrile illness by Dengue rapid antigen kit, Malaria rapid antigen kit and Rapid plasma Reagin (RPR) for screening of Syphilis, Anti streptolysin-O (ASO) and Widal test (slide agglutination) for Salmonella typhi infection.

The mycobacteriology division handles diagnostic facility for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria in pulmonary and extra-pulmonary samples. This lab is engaged with NTEP programme.

The Virology section is conducting RT-PCR for COVID-19 diagnosis at present. Viral Hepatitis and HIV molecular diagnostics are at pipeline to be started soon. The mycology laboratory is equipped with florescent microscopy and is providing diagnostic microscopy and culture services. It also provides expert clinical and technical consultation in diagnosing varied mycotic infections ranging from superficial, subcutaneous, systemic and deep-seated mycoses. Stool microscopy services is also provided under the parasitology section.

The Infectious disease (ID) Clinic in collaboration with Department of General Medicine started on 7th January 2022 catering to a wide variety of infectious disease cases. The clinic is operating twice weekly – Wednesday and Friday. The department is actively involved in Hospital infection control with an active and functional HICC.