Department of Microbiology

1.  Faculty members and their research interests:

Note :  Replace * with @ in the email ID

 2.  No. of Post-graduate admission per year:

   i) M.D.  – 2

  ii) Ph.D. – 2 

3.  Highlights of patient care:

§         Total no. of investigations undertaken; over 80,000 per annum.

§         Different diagnostic tests that are available in various sections of the department are as follows:

·         Bacteriology – Microscopy and culture of body fluids, pus, swabs, tissues, stool, urine, blood and other body fluids.  Antibiotic sensitivity of bacterial isolates.

·         Anaerobic bacteriology section – Gram stain, anaerobic and aerobic bacterial culture, antibiotic sensitivity.

·         Parasitology section – Stool microscopy for intestinal parasites, acid-fast stain of  stool smears for coccidian parasites, microscopy of hydatid fluid, microscopy of hydrocele fluid and urine for microfilaria and of corneal scrapings for free living amoebae, microscopy and culture of liver pus for amoeba, stool culture for free living amoeba, DEC provocation test for microfilaria.  IHA for filariasis, hydatid disease, IgM ELISA for cysticercosis, Co-agglutination test for antigen in serum and CSF in cysticercosis and QBC for malaria parasite.

·         Bacteriology – Gram stain, Albert stain of different clinical specimens; dark ground microscopy for spirochaetes, urine microscopy, culture of pus, swabs, tissues, stool, urine, blood and other body fluids for aerobic bacteria.  Antibiotic sensitivity.

·         Anaerobic bacteriology section – Gram stain, anaerobic bacterial culture and antibiotic sensitivity.

·         Water analysis – Presumptive coliform count and differential coliform count.

·         Hospital infection surveillance – Culture for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, quality control of disinfectants.

·         Mycobacteriology section – Microscopy and culture of sputum and other clinical specimens for mycobacteria.

·         Immunology – VDRL test, TPHA test, widal test, ASLO test, RA factor test, Paul Bunnel test, test for C-reactive protein, Brucella agglutination test (BAT), IgM ELISA for brucellosis and leptospirosis, IFA for ANA.

·         Virology – ELISA for HbsAg, IgM ELISA for HCV, Rubella, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus (HSV).

·         HIV section – ELISA for HIV, rapid test for HIV infection (Immunocomb test).

·         Mycology section – KOH amount for direct detection of fungi in clinical specimens, India ink stain for Cryptococcus neoformans, gram stain for candidiasis, culture for fungi, antigen detection for C. neoformans by de-agglutination.  

Other significant features: 

Surveillance centre for HIV carrying on sero-prevalence of HIV infections in and around Pondicherry.

Participating in external quality assurance program organized by the VDRL reference laboratory, Chennai and the Quality Control Program of the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists.

4.  Special equipments available:

Themocycler (PCR machine), Western blotting unit, Microcentrifuge and ultraviolet adaptor for QBC test, Gel electrophoresis apparatus, Carbon dioxide incubator, turbidometer, monopan electronic balance, sonicator, cryocentrifuge, dark ground and fluorescence microscope, deep freezers minus 20`C and minus 70`C, ELISA reader and ELISA washer, cytospin. 

5.  Major Research Projects:

v      Detection of specific antigen in serum and other body fluids in neurocysticercosis.

v      Microbiological profile of childhood diarrhoea with special reference to HIV positive children.

v      Molecular diagnosis of neurocysticercosis.

v      Prevalence, identification and molecular characterization of enterococci from clinical specimens.

v      Comparison of different staining techniques in the determination of prevalence of trichomoniasis among women with genital tract discharge. 

6.  Other notable achievements/contribution to health sciences:

§         Organised and conducted a one day conference of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists (Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Chapter) in July 2001.

§         Department has taken part in the UNICEF funded research project on water testing with H2S test strip method.

§         Under Indo-Sri Lanka link Program, funded by Indo-Sri Lanka Foundation, the technical know-hows of low cost bench technologies evaluated and developed in the Department of Microbiology for diagnosis of parasitic diseases (amoebiasis, cysticercosis, filariasis and hydatid disease), is being transferred to the University of Parendenya, Kandy, Sri Lanka.

§         Dr.S.C. Parija published the following books: (1) “Parasitic zoonoses” by AIPD Publishers, Chennai 1991 (2) “Text book of Medical Parasitology” by AIPD Publishers, Chennai 1993.