CLINICAL
CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY
Read articles about clinical microbiology from Microbiologics’ experts and other field experts. Learn about clinical lab best practices, case files, identifying viral, fungal, bacterial, and parasitic agents contributing to the infectious process, and more.
How Clinical Laboratories Are Adapting to Covid-19 Challenges
An Interview with a Diagnostic Laboratory Director For every major challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, many lesser-known difficulties have multiplied the complexities of laboratory diagnostics. Logistical issues, for example, continue to impact the speed and...
The Unique Challenges of Drug Resistant Gonorrhea
When penicillin went into widespread use during WWII, it became known as “the wonder drug” for its revolutionary impact on infections. In addition to its ability to treat war wounds, it also dramatically changed treatment of common infections, including STIs like...
Women’s Health & STI Quiz
According to the World Health Organization, over one million sexually transmitted infections are contracted every day. Infection rates have been steadily increasing, reaching new records each year since 2014, but public awareness of STIs is not keeping pace. How much...
The Public Health Crisis of Antimicrobial Resistance
What if the latest tech device had all the bells and whistles everyone wanted and was far better than anything currently being sold, but the marketer was told he could not sell it until all the previous versions of his device had broken? And then, he had to sell his...
The Sustained Increase in STIs
Less than 20 years ago, STIs were at historic lows. Syphilis was close to elimination. In 2021, however, sexually transmitted infections are at an all-time high, yet the importance of prevention and screening seems to have fallen by the wayside. Recent statistics...
Celebrating Medical Laboratory Professionals Week 2021
In a time when we have come to rely on medical laboratory professionals more and more, we also run the risk of taking their work for granted. Their work is so integral to our health and everyday life that most people rarely take notice. Medical Laboratory...
The Crisis of Increasing Drug-Resistance in the Tuberculosis Pandemic
About every 22 seconds, someone dies from Tuberculosis. As the deadliest bacterial infection worldwide, Tuberculosis causes or contributes to 1-1.5 million deaths per year, recently surpassing HIV as the deadliest single infectious agent. Around ten million people...
When COVID-19 Meets Flu Season: How One Clinical Laboratory is Preparing
A typical flu season presents significant challenges for medical laboratories with increased demand and pressure for providing quick and accurate diagnostic testing. But what happens when you combine this already demanding time with the global COVID-19 pandemic? No...
What Happens When Laboratory Tests Fail?
The Critical Role of QC in Every Stage of Assay Development and Usage For anyone of us involved in medical laboratory or public health laboratory testing, we understand the critical importance of clinical quality control (QC). With the ongoing fallout from the...
Uses and Advantages of Synthetic RNA Process Controls for SARS-CoV-2 Assays
For a highly infectious virus like SARS-CoV-2, an inactivated whole virus control is the gold standard for accuracy. For labs that opt for other control formats, synthetic RNA controls can provide many of the same qualities as inactivated whole virus controls. While...
