Gram Stain Advantages And Disadvantages

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Assignment 1
Gram stains are commonplace in many labs. It has many advantages including:
The gram stain assists medical professionals in identifying if bacteria are the cause of an infection and then it helps determine a course of treatment.
Treatment of Gram-negative bacteria results in the releases of the toxin Lipid A. The longer the delay in treatment results in more bacterial growth, the more bacterial growth the more toxins the patient will be subjected to. If enough toxins are released it could result in death. This is the primary reason that it’s important to quickly and accurately determine if infections are Gram-negative or Gram-positive.
Another benefit of the Gram stain is that it’s a relatively inexpensive way to allow the viewing of normally clear Bacteria with a typical light microscope having ample magnification ability.
The primary pitfall of the using the Gram-stain technique is human error. During this 4-step process, it’s easy to overheat during fixation, over wash or …show more content…

This work is usually done in the impoverished parts of the country where the disease is rampant. Common examples include HIV/AIDS, Yellow fever, Tuberculosis (TB), malaria, Hepatitis, Cutaneous Leishmaniasis and many more. The original complaints of night chills and sweats, loss of appetite and weight, and recurrent fever are classic malaria symptoms, which was ruled out by a blood smear to identify parasites. The next significant threat to rule out was Tuberculosis, a highly communicable disease which South Africa has one of the highest rates of it in the world. The blood-stained sputum was evaluated with an acid-fast stain, which can be used to identify organisms in the genus Mycobacterium, which are indicated by bright red bacilli. The Lowenstein-Jensen Medium is used for the cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and provided the confirmation that the agent that the student contracted

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