Mangalore, Jan 24, 2014 : Father Muller Medical College (FMMC), department of microbiology organized ‘An Encounter with Anaerobes’, a three-day national Hands-on- Workshop on Anaerobic Culture Techniques. The workshop was inaugurated at Knowledge Center, Father Muller Charitable Institutions here on Thursday January 23 morning.
Dr M K Lalitha, past president, IAMM advisor of laboratory services, Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences Kozhikode, Kerala was the chief guest of the occasion.
Fr Patrick Rodrigues, director of Father Muller Charitable Institutions presided the function.
FMMC administrator Fr Rudolph Ravi D’Sa, FMMC dean Dr Jayaprakash Alva, organizing chairperson Dr Rekha, organizing secretary Dr Beena Antony were the dignitaries present on the dais.
Dr M K Lalitha, while addressing the gathering appreciated the organizers for choosing Anaerobes as the topic for the workshop. She said, ‘Anaerobes is not much discussed due to its intricacy and complex nature of isolation and identification. Dealing with anaerobes organisms is much challenging compared to dealing with other organisms,’ said Dr Lalitha.
Dr Lalitha shed light on significance in Anaerobes and the infections in humans. She added, ‘In order to prevent these infections and to have a healthy society, the microbiologists along with the clinicians should work together and gain wider knowledge about these bacteria called anaerobes,’ added Dr Lalitha.
Fr Patrick Rodrigues, in his presidential address said, ‘In United States of America, 40 millions are affected with the hospital acquired infections and among them around 90,000 face mortality. In developed countries, the infection rate is from 5 to 15 percent and in developing countries it is 10 to 32 percent,’ said Fr Rodrigues.
Fr Rodrigues further said, ‘The cost of curing is high compared to the cost of prevention. It is important to know about such infections and to control its impact on patient and also the budget. Prevention of the infection is the major challenge,’ said Fr Rodrigues.
Fr Rudolph Ravi D’Sa released anaerobic laboratory manual on the same occasion.
The three-day workshop will be conducted in 5 sessions where the eminent doctors will speak on various topics like anaerobic culture techniques and culture media, laboratory diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of anaerobes, isolation and identification of anaerobes, anaerobic organism and its culture techniques, Recent techniques for identification of anaerobes with an emphasis on Molecular Methods, Quantization in culture methods for intestinal, vaginal and oral specimens. Practical sessions will also be conducted in order to give a better understanding about this topic.