How are microbes presently identified from clinical samples?
Routine clinical microbiology is in reality limited to mainly identifying bacteria (bacteriology), with a generally poor ability to detect the other important groups of disease causing organismsviruses, parasites and fungi. As many infectious syndromes are caused by pathogens other than bacteria, clearly the term microbiology laboratory is a misnomer. Rapid, specific and cost-effective laboratory diagnosis of most viral, parasitic and fungal diseases is just not a practical option with the methods in current use. Bacteria are identified with present technology as a result of a complex mix of inputs from different sources: the shape, color and consistency of the colony; the shape, size, and color of the bacteria with artificial staining agents (e.g. Gram stain); the association with unusual phenomena (e.g. rupture of sheep red blood cells, or the production of gas) and sometimes specific antigen detection (antibody mediated latex flocculation and ELISA). Furthermore, some organisms are