Surveillance is a key factor in the management of and response to antimicrobial resistance. Determining which microbes are resistant to what antimicrobial agents, how widespread those strains are, and which are causing the most problems enables the prioritization of research…
Category Archive:
Getting Started with Proficiency Testing
What it is, what to expect, and what to look for Your new testing facility is working toward accreditation and needs to be accredited. Testing accreditation often comes with one requirement you might not have planned for: proficiency testing (or…
Two Recent Salmonella Outbreaks
Since January 18th, there have been two recalls due to Salmonella spp.: one in domestically produced eggs, and the other in imported mini pastries. So far, it’s unclear whether anyone has been affected by recalled eggs, but 1600 people are…
Shigella infections on the rise among vulnerable populations in major Canadian cities
Vancouver, Toronto, and Edmonton have all had outbreaks of infectious diarrhea lately, many of them caused by infections with Shigella species. One of the most common causes of dysentery, Shigella infections, cause gastrointestinal symptoms including severe diarrhea, and are easily…
Switching to a Canadian PT Provider
With the looming threat of a trade war between the United States and Canada, many Canadians are moving their purchases away from the states, trying to buy local and canceling vacations. Here in Vancouver, there is unanimous support from city…
New PT Offering: Blood Cultures
In response of the need of laboratories that only monitor blood cultures for positivity, CMPT has created a blood culture only program. This program satisfies accreditation needs by sending 2 blood culture samples for testing twice a year. The program…
Simple, Fast Test for Bacterial Contamination
What if testing for bacteria in fluids was a fast and easy as detecting viruses with a rapid antigen test? Researchers at McMaster University have come up with a novel test for detecting bacteria in a fluid sample that is…
Fighting AMR with Bacteriophages
Before the discovery of antibiotics in the 1930’s, there was an effort to treat bacterial infections using bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, and they occur naturally wherever bacteria are found, from lakes and streams to the microbiomes inside…
Merry Christmas from CMPT
Novel TB Drug Shows Promise
Once called “consumption,” the disease we now refer to as tuberculosis was at one time romanticized as an artists’ disease and was thought to bring about a noble death. Quickly, however, as treatments were developed, tuberculosis became a disease of…