Dr Hasan Bhally is a specialist in infectious diseases in private practice on Auckland's North Shore and Clinical Director of the Infection Service at Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand- Waitemata.

Hasan offers a wide range of services pertaining to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in adults. His areas of specialisation/interest include:

• recurrent infections such as urinary tract infections and skin boils
• infections from resistant bacteria (superbugs)
• orthopaedic implant and other surgical infections requiring long term (including home IV) therapy
• travel related infections, pre/post travel consult, Yellow Fever certification
• hepatitis B and C
• COVID

What are Infectious Diseases?
An infectious disease is a disease caused by the presence of pathogenic microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi or parasites.

Infectious diseases vary in their ability to be spread from one person to another; those that do spread are known as contagious or communicable diseases.

Most minor infectious diseases e.g. warts, respiratory system infections, can be diagnosed by clinical presentation while in other cases it may be necessary to identify the particular microbe.

Many infectious diseases are diagnosed and treated by primary care doctors or by other medical or surgical teams in the hospital. However, in other cases, specialist doctors who have trained and have expertise in infectious diseases will become involved. This may be necessary when e.g. there is not a definite diagnosis, the patient is immunocompromised (their immune system is unable to fight the infection) or the disease has not responded to first line antibiotics.