Bacterial infections in Lilongwe, Malawi: aetiology and antibiotic resistance

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 2 Laboratory methods for identification and susceptibility testing

Organism	Media	Tests for presumptive identification	Susceptibility panel	Method
Salmonellae	BAP	Gram stain;	GNP	Disc diffusion
	MAC	TSI;
		Indole;
		Colony morphology;
		Urease
Enteric gram negative bacilli	BAP	Gram stain;	GNP	Disc diffusion
	MAC	Colony morphology
		Indole;
		Oxidase;
		TSI;
		Citrate;
		Urease
N. meningitidis	BAP	Gram stain	None	None
	CHOC	Oxidase
	TM	Thayer-Martin
S. pneumoniae	BAP	Gram stain	GPP	Disc diffusion
	CHOC	Hemolysis Catalase	Oxacillin
		Bile solubility	screening test
S. aureus	BAP	Gram stain	GPP	Disc diffusion
	CHOC	Catalase	Oxacillin
	MSA	Coagulase
		Staphlex
C. neoformans	Sabouraud's	Gram stain	None	None
	BAP	India Ink
		Urease
Haemophilus	BAP	Gram stain	None	None
	CHOC	Oxidase
		API-NH
S. pyogenes	BAP	Haemolysis	GPP	Disc diffusion
		Gram stain

BAP = blood agar plate, MAC = MacConkey agar, CHOC = chocolate agar, TSI = triple-sugar with iron media, TM = Thayer-Martin agar, MSA = mannitol salt agar. Coagulase = tube coagulate test using human plasma; GPP = gram positive antibiotic panel, GNP = gram negative antibiotic panel, see Table 3.