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Rapid strep testing
Hardy Diagnostics offers a complete kit to reliably identify Strep Groups A, B, C, D, F, and G. The procedure takes only two minutes and produces clear cut, easy-to-read results with minimal cross reactivity.
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a culture of service...
October, 2012
© 2012, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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MicroTips...
_______________________
How can I identify
Staphylococcus lugdunensis
?
Unlike other coagulase-negative Staphs,
S. lugdunensis
can be a dangerous pathogen. It has been implicated in many severe infections including meningitis, abscesses, and endocarditis. It is often misidentified as
S. hominis
or
S. epidermidis
.
However, it can be easily separated from other tube coagulase-negative Staphs by its ability to decarboxylate ornithine. Hardy offers a rapid test kit for this purpose that will produce results in two to four hours.
Click here
to see the instructions.
Click here
for ordering information.
Click here
for more info on
Staphylococcus lugdunensis
.
Do you have a MicroTip to share with your fellow MicroBytes readers?
Click here.
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Brainteasers
A cranial work-out.
Enter
here and
feel the burn!
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For Group B Strep
Carrot Broth
A
recent study
showed Carrot Broth to be more sensitive than LIM Broth for the recovery of Group B Strep from pregnant women. This study found Hardy's Carrot Broth to be 100% sensitive and specific.
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Phraseology
"The Third Degree"
If you are "given the third degree," you would be intensively questioned or interrogated on a subject by a suspicious party until the subject is exhausted.
The term comes directly from the Freemasons. The top-ranking Masons are called "Third Degree Masons," or "Master Masons." In order to gain title, a member must undergo severe and thorough scrutiny and questioning from superiors until they are satisfied of his trustworthiness.
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Think about it...
* Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are going dead?
* Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough money?
* Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
* Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
* Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
* Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
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Wisdom to ponder...
Emily Dickinson
1830 ~ 1886
A reclusive American poet from Massachusetts.
Although a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.
"Truth is so rare
that it is delightful to tell it."
"Find ecstasy in life;
the mere sense of living is joy enough."
"Dogs are better than human beings because they know, but do not tell."
"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain."
"To love is so startling
it leaves little time for anything else."
"Dying is a wild night and a new road."
"It is better to be the hammer
than the anvil."
"People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles."
"I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in Heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot,
As if a chart were given."
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We crave your comments...
How are we doing?
Are you a Hardy customer? If so, we need your help in assessing our performance.
At Hardy Diagnostics, we are fanatics about implementing Continuous Improvement. Would you please take a moment to answer two questions?
It should only take a minute or two and would be an immense help to us in honing our skills.
Provide some feedback...
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QUICK LINKS...
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter
at home?
CLICK HERE
Want to review past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
-
Is celebrating its 32nd year of serving microbiologists.
-
Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
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Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
-
Maintains a worldwide network of over 40
distributors.
Send a
message to the president
.
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Keeping it simple...
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."
~ Albert Einstein ~
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Micro Musings..
"They're harmless when they're alone, but get a bunch of them together with a research grant
and watch out!"
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This Nobel Prize winner told us how to live a healthier and longer life through the use of probiotics in 1910.
Can fermented food products promote longevity?
Which species of GI bacteria are most helpful?
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.
FDA issues a warning
Improper Use of Netti Pots Lead to Fatal
Brain Infections
Researchers believe that two people who died from the "brain-eating" amoeba,
Naegleria fowleri
, in 2011, contracted the infection after using neti pots with tap water to clear their sinuses.
Typically, people contract the amoeba from swimming in warm freshwater lakes and rivers since the organism thrives in warm temperatures. However, the victims - a 28-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman from Louisiana - had not been near freshwater. The only thing they had in common was that they both routinely used the tap water with neti pots.
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Naegleria fowleri - showing the cyst, flagellate, and trophozoite stages. These organisms are capable of entering the brain after penetrating through sinus and nasal mucosa.
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The FDA recently advised neti pot users to only use distilled water or water that has been boiled or filtered.
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Optical oddities...
The white center is brighter
than the white at the outer border...right?
...actually it is not.
"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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Get the survey results...
Should it be mandatory
that health care workers
get a flu shot?
Currently, about 80% of physicians and 60% of nurses get an annual flu shot.
Art Kaplan, PhD at the University of New York, Medical Ethics Division says,
"
I think that every hospital and every nursing home should require as a condition of employment that you show that you got a flu shot every year. Ethically, your first obligation is to do no harm. If you are there to do no harm and that is your primary obligation, then you cannot put your personal choice or your personal reluctance to get that shot above doing harm.
"
Find out
what your fellow
MicroBytes readers had to say about this controversial subject...
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Take the MicroBytes Survey...
Are severe storms, such as Hurricane Sandy, partially caused by an increase in man-made greenhouse gases?
Hurricane Sandy left over 7.5 million people without electricity, produced waves up to 40 feet high, and caused the deaths of 140 people (60 in the Caribbean).
It is estimated that the damage and loss of economic activity caused by this storm totals close to $50 billion; making it one of the most, if not the most destructive storm in American history.
Are man-made greenhouse gases partially to blame?
Give us your opinion.
...
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Horrendous Headlines
Actual newspaper headlines that the proof
readers overlooked...
___________________
Miners Refuse to Work after Death
Man Kills Self Before
Shooting Wife and
Daughter
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash
Police Begin Campaign
to Run Down Jaywalkers
Panda Mating Fails;
Veterinarian Takes Over
Juvenile Court to Try
Shooting Defendant
War Dims Hope for Peace
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly,
It May Last Awhile
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
London Couple Slain;
Police Suspect Homicide
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
Man Struck By Lightning:
Faces Battery Charge
New Study of Obesity Looks for
Larger Test Group
Astronaut Takes Blame for
Gas in Spacecraft
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
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"The brain is a wonderful organ;
it starts working the moment you get up in the morning
and does not stop until you get into the office."
~ Robert Frost ~
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Contaminated Spinal Injections
As of November 5, 2012, the count is now up to 404 cases of fungal meningitis with 29 deaths due to the use of contaminated spinal injections prepared by compounding pharmacies.
Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, and Virginia have been hit the hardest according to a
new map
released by the CDC.
All but two of these infections were found to be caused by the black pigmented fungus,
Exserophilum rostrum
. The remaining two were caused by
Aspergillus
and
Cladosporium
.
The culturing of unopened vials has also yielded various contaminants such as
Bacillus
spp bacteria, and other fungi:
Rhodotorula
, and
Rhizopus
.
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The HardyVal Kit: used to ensure the proper processing of sterile fluids for injection.
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Hardy Diagnostics offers various kits to assist pharmacies in the quality assurance of compounded sterile preparations. The
HardyVal
products comply with the "media fill challenge" testing as required in the USP chapter <797>.
Find out
more about how to validate aseptic technique with sterile preparations.
View the complete catalog
of Hardy products for the pharmaceutical industry.
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