Infectious Diseases

All of the fields connected to infectious diseases, i.e. diseases caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or yeasts, are concentrated within the Infectious Diseases Department, which is based in the Central Institute of hospitals.

This department brings together different areas of activity for patients, doctors, health institutes and the state:

  • Medical infectiology consultations are carried out by doctors who are FMH specialists in infectiology. The consultations are for outpatients or in-patients at the sites of Valais Hospital, Chablais Hospital or of the Clinique Romande de Réadaptation-SUVA who are suffering from infectious disorders such as an HIV/AIDS infection, viral hepatitis or any other infection.
  • Travel medicine and in particular vaccination and advice to travellers for their holidays or other trips to tropical countries are provided by the doctors, nurses and medical assistants of the department; these people are also responsible for vaccinating migrants who arrive in the Canton of Valais.
  • Testing for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is available to any individual who wants it and may be carried out anonymously. It is carried out by the doctors, nurses and medical assistants of the Infectious Diseases Department, which is also responsible for coordinating these activities in the canton’s SIPE (Sexuality Information Prevention Education) centres.
  • The prevention and control of infection (or hospital hygiene or hospital epidemiology) brings together all activities for combating infections that have been acquired while receiving care (or hospital-acquired infections). These aspects of prevention, monitoring, intervention and education contribute to promoting the quality of the care provided to patients and to improving their safety. These activities are carried out by the department’s infectiologists and specialist nurses on the hospital sites of Valais Hospital, Chablais Hospital, at the Clinique Romande de Réadaptation-SUVA, at the Clinique Bernoise d’Altitude in Montana and in the medico-social institutions and centres of the Canton of Valais.
  • Microbiology is the laboratory speciality which establishes the diagnosis of infectious diseases using bacteriological, parasitological, molecular biological and serological techniques. These activities are supervised by doctors or biologists who are FAMH specialists in clinical microbiology and are carried out by specialist biomedical analysis technicians for the hospital sites of Valais Hospital and Chablais Hospital, the Clinique Romande de Réadaptation-SUVA and the Clinique Bernoise d’Altitude in Montana. They are also available to medical practitioners.
  • Combating communicable diseases, an activity entrusted to us by the State Council of Valais, is carried out under the responsibility of the cantonal doctor, within the Cantonal Unit for Infectious Diseases, located in the Infectious Diseases Department. This unit monitors infectious diseases within the population of Valais and coordinates any necessary public health measures.

Contact Secretary / consultations

Telephone: 027 603 47 80

E-mail: ich.infectiologie(at)hopitalvs.ch

Opening hours: 8:00-12:00 / 14:00-17:00

Microbiology

  • Bacteriology and parasitology: 027 603 48 81
  • Serology and molecular biology: 027 603 48 65

Related

disciplines