MICROSCOPY OF CEREBROSPINAL FLUID (CSF)

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples are obtained with extra precautions using a technique called lumbar puncture. Lumbar puncture is defined a medical procedure in which a sterile needle is inserted into the spinal canal (of a patient suspected of having a central nervous system infection) to obtain cerebrospinal fluid sample for microbiological and/or other medical/diagnostic testing.  […]

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Microbe Lab, Techniques in Microbiology Lab, , ,

THE PLACE OF STATISTICS IN THE STUDY OF EPIDEMIOLOGY

Statistics is a branch of mathematics that is concerned with the proper method of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing and interpretation of numerical data. It affords scientists (especially the epidemiologists) the knowledge of making good use of numbers (data) in their research undertakings. In statistics, data can be classified into two types: Primary data and Secondary

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Epidemiology, ,

PATHOGEN & HOST FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DISEASE DEVELOPMENT

Once a disease-causing microorganism (pathogen) gains entry into the body of a susceptible host, the pathogen will adhere or attach itself to specific receptors on the cell surfaces of the host. Upon successful invasion and binding, the microorganism will begin to release chemicals that will eventually attack the host cells. The pathogen (agent) factors includes

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Epidemiology, , ,

USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN CELL CULTURE LABORATORY

Bacterial contamination of cells was one of the major threats encountered in the culturing of animal cells in the cell culture laboratory. Microorganisms are naturally ubiquitous. The ever-present nature of microbial organisms should be considered and eliminated as much as possible whenever any cell culture protocol is being contemplated. Cells can be easily contaminated in

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Cell Culture Notes, ,

BETA-LACTAMASE: an important resistance mechanism in bacteria

Beta-lactamases are enzymes secreted by both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, and which have the ability to hydrolyze (breakdown) beta-lactam antibiotics. Beta-lactamases are responsible for bacterial resistance to broad class of-beta-lactam antibiotics, including the penicillins, cephalosporins and carbapenems. They provide antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria by breaking the antibiotic structure, thereby leaving a molecule

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Antibiotic Resistance / Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) & Antibiogram, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, ,

MULTIDRUG RESISTANT BACTERIA (MDRB)

The introduction of antibiotics into clinical medicine for the treatment of infectious diseases heralded an era of one of the most significant breakthrough in medicine – since most infectious diseases that caused morbidity and mortality in the human race was drastically reduced and contained with antibiotics (the magic bullets). Particularly, penicillin was the first antibiotic

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Antibiotic Resistance / Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) & Antibiogram, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, , , , ,

FACTORS THAT AFFECT TRANSMISSION OF MALARIA

Environmental factors greatly enhances the spread and transmission of malaria because these climatic factors which are more prone in one part of the world than the other helps the female Anopheles mosquito (that harbours the Plasmodium parasite) to thrive and multiply successfully. The spread of malaria infection in a given population is controlled and affected

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Public Health & Parasitic Diseases (Parasitology), ,