INVITED ARTICLE An Approach to a Patient with Tropical Infection in the Intensive Care Unit Dilip R Karnad1 , Pravin Amin2 Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine (2021): 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23867 INTRODUCTION 1Department of Critical Care, Jupiter Hospital, Thane, Maharashtra, Tropical diseases are often defined as diseases that are prevalent India 1 in, or unique to, tropical and subtropical regions of the world. 2Department of Critical Care, Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Infections form a large proportion of the burden of tropical diseases. Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India These infections may sometimes require intensive care and tropical Corresponding Author: Dilip R Karnad, Department of Critical Care, infections account for about 20% of all intensive care unit (ICU) Jupiter Hospital, Thane, Maharashtra, India, Phone: +91 9892114992, 2 admissions in published data from Asia, South America, and Africa. e-mail:
[email protected] In the INDICAPS study that included data from 4038 patients from How to cite this article: Karnad DR, Amin P. An Approach to a 124 ICUs in India, 231 (5.7%) patients had tropical infections and Patient with Tropical Infection in the Intensive Care Unit. Indian J Crit 3 50 (21.7%) of these died. In another study, Parikh et al. found that Care Med 2021;25(Suppl 2):S118–S121. almost 24% of 1116 patients admitted to the ICU of a public hospital Source of support: Nil 4 in Mumbai were for tropical infections. Yeolekar et al. mention that Conflict of interest: None in the monsoon months, almost 80% of ICU beds in public hospitals may be occupied by patients with tropical infections.5 Tropical infections are common in the geographic regions of the world that are close to the equator because they have references regarding diseases that can be acquired by travelers a warmer climate with less seasonal variation in temperatures, after visiting specific geographic areas.