The field of microbiology focuses on the investigation of microscopic organisms. Microbes are any living thing smaller than a cell, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungus, prions, protozoa, and algae.

Several plant specimens are among the many types of organisms studied by the clinical microbiology labs that Evolve supports. Today’s medical technology allows microbiologists to use this kind of data to enhance and create new vaccines that can protect millions of people from disease. This article will help you understand much about microbiology testing labs and how they help us.

Microbiologists are impacting people’s lives worldwide by, for example, making sure our food is safe, treating and preventing disease, creating green technology, and studying the role of microbes in climate change.

Microbiologists play a major role in everyday life. By studying bacteria, microbiologists want to provide light on pressing global issues. Here’s how microbiologists help us.

The role of microbiologists in Healthcare:

Viruses that cause colds and flu and bacteria that can cause catastrophic diseases like meningitis and tuberculosis may be the first types of microorganisms that come to mind. On the other hand, bacteria have their uses in medicine in terms of health and sickness and the development of new treatments for both.

Finding the inner workings of microorganisms is a prerequisite to either alleviating the issues they cause or capitalizing on their powers. This information will subsequently be used to create new technologies, treat or prevent disease, and enhance people’s quality of life.

Disease treatment relies heavily on the work of microbiologists. Many people use their scientific training to work as biomedical scientists at clinics and research facilities, where they analyze tissue, blood, and other bodily fluid samples to make diagnoses, track therapies, and detect the spread of disease. 

Some microbiologists have clinical science careers, conducting research and advising medical professionals at hospitals, universities, and medical school laboratories. Some microbiologists specialize in studying infectious diseases like the flu or tuberculosis; the data they collect is used to create new vaccines and enhance existing therapies.

The role of a microbiology laboratory:

Isolation and characterization of infectious microorganisms serve two crucial purposes.

Infections are treated on a daily basis in a clinical setting. Additionally, tracing an infectious bacterium back to its origin utilizes microbiological expertise. Epidemiologically speaking, this helps the personnel contain an infection and prevent its spread.

Microbiologists in clinical diagnostic labs analyze data and consult with doctors on patient care. A physician’s advice may also include measures to avoid spreading infection. Microbiologists may confer on topics such as antibiotic selection and contagion control measures.

The clinical role:

Some infections are more severe and must be treated right away, even if the microbial cause is unknown. However, laboratory tests can confirm a diagnosis if clinical suspicion of disease exists. Most infections obtained while receiving medical care are caused by bacteria or fungi that are resistant to antibiotics. So, correct diagnosis is the first step toward effective treatment.

Since the most common infectious bacteria can be diagnosed in a microbiology lab, these facilities are gaining increasing relevance in clinical care and infection prevention. The antibiotic resistance of the pathogens can also be assessed. Patients fare better when treated specifically, and the spread of infections is slowed.

Infection control role:

A clinical microbiology lab is crucial to the success of any Infection Prevention and Control program. It plays a number of important parts in preventing healthcare-associated infections (HCAI):

• Managing Outbreaks
• Bacterial Typing
• Fungal Typing
• HCAI Surveillance
• Reports about new microbes
• Reporting unusual resistance

Here are a few common procedures performed at a medical microbiological lab:

Blood Test:

One of the best methods to maintain tabs on your health is to get your blood tested on a regular basis. By getting checked at regular intervals, you may see any changes in your body and use that data to make educated choices about your health.

What does a blood test show?

Your doctor will be able to tell a lot about the health of your internal organs from the results of some blood tests. For instance, problems with your thyroid, liver, or kidneys might be detected in a medical diagnostic by analyzing your blood.

Urine Analysis:

To perform a urinalysis is to subject your urine to a set of tests. It’s a tool used by doctors to screen for common ailments. It’s also known as a UA, a urine test, or an examination of urine.

Why is it recommended?

A urinalysis may be performed during normal medical examinations, such as a yearly physical. Certain diseases can be detected in their early stages by urinalysis. Those things are:

• Kidney disease
• Liver disease
• Diabetes

It is also a common lab test for kidney function as it can determine how your kidneys function.

Thyroid tests:

To diagnose thyroid or pituitary issues, doctors draw blood. These examinations aid the treatment of children with known thyroid or pituitary disorders. The common tests in thyroid function tests include:

TSH test:

Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in a blood sample are the gold standard for diagnosing thyroid problems. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) changes can be an “early warning system,” appearing before the body’s actual amount of thyroid hormones becomes abnormally high or low.

T4 tests:

The most common form of thyroid hormone in the body is T4. Because Total T4 accounts for both bound and free hormones, it can shift in value when binding proteins are variable (see above). 

What is free to circulate in the blood and has an effect on the tissues of the body is quantified by the Free T4 test. When compared to a TSH test, one that measures free T4 (either a free T4 (FT4) or free T4 index (FTI)) provides a more realistic picture of thyroid gland health. Seeking help from the right microbiology lab in Coimbatore can help you identify any abnormality or infection in your body at the earliest.

Important takeaway:

Microbes lay claim to an essential, principal role in the functioning of the biosphere and as major factors in the state of human health. Therefore, microbiology is crucial to studying and understanding all life on Earth since it is at the center of the study of microbes. 

To optimize antibiotic treatment in order to enhance patient outcomes, decrease potential toxicity, avoid the establishment of resistance, and cut healthcare costs, the microbiology laboratory plays a crucial role in antimicrobial stewardship.