Thursday 11 October 2012

Pharmaceutical Microbiology – ensuring the wellbeing of the worldly

As the problems like food adulteration and environmental contamination is increasing, there is a severe pressure on people to ensure their health. Health does not mean just being free from diseases and having a good exterior. To ensure that you are fit and fine, you should let some basic tests performed on yourself by professionals. There are a number of laboratories in various parts of the world that perform these tests to ensure a good health of a person. These tests are performed on the sputum, urine or blood of the person and results are observed.
Microbiology is the branch of science that deals with the organisms that cannot be seen from naked eye. These organisms are very small in size and thus these are named as micro organisms like bacteria, fungus, viruses, prokaryotes, etc. Pharmaceutical Microbiology is an extension of this branch of science in which various studies and experiments are performed on these organisms to find out their perception and resistivity for various drugs. Many health problems such as viral, pneumonia, malaria, cancer, tuberculosis are caused by these tiny organisms. The experiments performed on these organisms can prove to be of great help for treating individuals who are suffering from diseases caused by them. This study is particularly called antimicrobial testing. An antimicrobial substance is used to kill or prevent the growth of these micro organisms. Antibiotic medicines are a form of antimicrobial substances. In fact, it is a substance that is produced by a micro organism that does not allow the growth of any other micro organism.
Pharmaceutical Microbiology is a very valuable branch of science for various purposes that are not only applicable in the hospitals but are also required in clinics. Microbiological examinations cover facility corroboration, crude materials testing, sterilization and wrapping supports, and biocompatibility studies related to the devices that can be used again in addition to planned quality control evaluations and like. Many national and private laboratories are there which perform tests on antimicrobials to find out if they can prove to be affective on the human body. Some of these tests are:
  • Antimicrobial/preservative effectiveness testing
  • Antimicrobial assays including disinfection effectiveness
  • Method development and confirmation
  • AATCC techniques
  • International standards regulation
  • Endo-toxin analysis
  • Water systems testing
Though these tests are performed on medical prescription, yet you can also request these laboratories for taking these tests on your body if you want to make sure that you are in good health. You can either find these laboratories in your locality or search for them online. It will be convenient for you to find a lab in close vicinity of the place where you live as this might require more than one visits to the same. Also it will be easy for you to get these tests performed on you on regular basis. But before deciding which lab to trust with these tests, you must visit it personally at least once to see if everything is up to the mark. The place should be hygienic and equipped with sufficient machines and workforce.

Appropriate health check with antimicrobial testing

As modern technologies are pouring in every nanosecond, people are getting more health conscious. For them staying fit and healthy is very important. This is the reason why they keep a thorough check on the foods they eat. Obviously they cannot risk their lives by eating something that could lead their way to fatal situations. Thus, for the goodwill of the people the foods are beforehand well tested.
Around the globe there are many laboratories that conduct antimicrobial testing. Below given are some bacteria and microbes for which the experts are required to carry out testing:

  • Total viable count: this is a type of testing that is carried on foods to depict the overall picture of the microbiological quality.
  • Enterobacteriaceae: these are used as hygiene indicator organism and even given further warnings of the failures that are likely to take place in the future.
  • Coliforms: these are also termed as hygiene indicator organisms but were used in early times.
  • Enterococci: this is type of organisms that are found in the feces of the humans and are used as a maker of feces contamination in products.
  • E.coli: this is responsible for causing food poisoning. They are the members of Enterobacteriaceae and widely used as an indicator in food testing.
  • Staphylococcus aureus: known for causing food poisoning can leave behind toxin if grows in larger number. It survives on human skin and can transfer to the eatables also.
  • Pseudomonas spp: another organism that is responsible for spoiling the food and is often connected with the spoilage of fish products, milk and meat. They are highly found in environment especially in soil and water.
  • Yeasts and Moulds: plays a very important role in spoiling the food and even produce mycotoxins that can harm the humans also.
There are numerous laboratories that test on various antimicrobials that can affect the human body in anyway. Following given are some tests:

  • Antimicrobial or chemical addition Effectiveness Testing: such as USP 51, USP 61, USP 62, Ph.Eur. 5.1.3, JP (12), etc
  • ASTM Antimicrobial Assays as well as Disinfection efficacy
  • ASTM, AOAC
  • Technique development and validation
  • AATCC methods
  • Global standards
  • Custom studies and method improvement
  • Endotoxin testing
  • Water systems like USP <1227>
As said, there are countless labs where you could get these tests done easily. If you wish to find them, then you could take help of your friends and family or even see online. These labs are either situated in the area nearby or have their huge plants situated in faraway if the area of the lab is too large to fit in an ordinary city. The accuracy of the test is almost hundred percent as the antimicrobial testing is done under the supervision of the experts who have been serving the concerned industry for years. These labs have their active websites which you could visit anytime.
If you are the one who is into food and corporation business so for you such labs are real help and you are assured that in future you are not going to receive any complaints from your business associates either.