Blood Culture Bottle Production
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| The isolation and identification of pathogenic bacteria from the blood of a febrile patient is one of the most important things a diagnostic microbiology laboratory does. But with commercial blood culture media bottles from France or the US costing between $6-$10 each in Cambodia, only those labs supported by the US government or the Institut Pasteur here in Cambodia can afford them. One would think that the preparation of bottles of blood culture broth is not difficult. But gathering the supplies has been a real challenge. The essential ingredients of the broth: the Brain Heart Infusion powder and the SPS anticoagulant with activity against antibiotics come from HiMedia Labs in Mumbai. The glass bottles come from China and the rubber stoppers and aluminum seals from Bangkok, Thailand. Fortunately, Dr. Chou Monidarin at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Health Sciences has assumed the responsibility for producing the final product and we think we can produce blood culture media for about $1/bottle including quality control and distribution to Cambodian government hospital microbiology laboratories. That should be a sustainable cost to the Provincial Hospitals. |