Cardiac Care

Microbiology

The Department of Microbiology :


Microbiology section of the laboratory provides state-of-art services for diagnosis of infectious diseases - bacterial, mycobacteria, and fungal, parasitic and viral infections. In addition to conventional techniques, the lab is well equipped with automated systems that perform blood culture and mycobacterium culture. Bacterial identification and antimicrobial susceptibility are also performed by automated system reducing the turn around time of reporting.

Serological investigations to determine the antibody/antigens of HIV, HBV, HCV, Dengue, Leptospira, and Cryptococcus etc. are performed besides routine tests like Widal, RA, ASO etc.

The department assists in providing education on infection control practices for healthcare workers. Infection control policies on waste disposal, use of disnfectants and antibiotics have been formulated. The department also provides relevant data in monitoring healthcare associated infections. Constant surveillance is done on Infection control practices in the entire hospital in order to control the infection rate as well as prevent outbreaks.


Microbiology is the scientific field that is occupied with the study of microscopic organisms, commonly known as micro-organisms.

What kinds of micro-organisms are there?

There are two kinds of micro-organisms.
Protista (eukaryotic): They contain nucleuses, surrounded by membrane.
Monera (prokaryotic): They contain no nucleus and other internal parts, surrounded by a membrane.
Monera are bacteria & cyanobacteria and Protista are single celled eukaryotic micro-organisms, example are amoebdiatoms, algae and protozoa.

What are Bacteria?

They are single cell organisms usually having a definite outer envelope or capsule for protection. They multiply by dividing into two, which can occur very quickly, (eg. every 20 minutes). They can actively move and some link themselves together in chains or in bunches.

What are Viruses?

Viruses are organisms much smaller than bacteria. In their pre-infective stage they are just like a chemical with none of the requirements for life, but once in a living cell they take over and begin to multiply. They can grow only in living tissue, but can be carried in food from one person to another.

What are Yeast?

Yeasts are single cell organisms much larger than bacteria and can be found in the soil, on plants and on the skin and body of man. They multiply by forming offspring as buds which grow and then detach themselves.
Some can produce disease, some cause skin infections in man and others cause diseases in plants. Some yeasts spoil food, but beneficial uses are in the making of beer, wine and bread.

What are Moulds?

Moulds grow as single cell filaments that can branch together making a strongly knit tructure like a mat, that can often be seen with the naked eye. Usually they look fluffy, being a familiar sight on foods like jam, cheese and bread. They multiply by producing clusters of dry spores which are blown by the air like seeds. Many moulds spoil food and a few can cause disease in plants and man, but beneficial uses are in the ripening of cheeses and production of antibiotics.

How many microbes live in our body ?

There are more microbial cells in our body than there are human cells! in fact 95% of all the cells in the body are bacteria, mainly living in the digestive tract. There are more bacteria in the colon than the total number of people who have ever lived. everyone has about 1 kg in weight of bacteria in their gut. Each gram of faeces contains 100,000,000,000 microbes. Human adults excrete their own weight in faecal bacteria every year.

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