title: Recovery rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using five decontamination methods.
abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains one of the leading infectious diseases in resource limited countries of the world, including Nigeria. For optimal care of patients with pulmonary TB, effective decontamination methods are required for isolation and identification of M. tuberculosis from other fast growing organisms found in sputum samples of infected patients. Five methods of sputum decontamination including the Petroff, oxalic, bleach, simplified concentration and Kudoh methods were assessed prior to mycobacterial culture. In all, thirty human sputum samples were processed and results analysed after eight weeks of incubation. Overall, there was a significant difference in the growth yield using the different methods (Friedman test statistic, Q(K) = 36.3; P < 0.05). Again, a significant difference (Friedman test statistic, Q(K) = 48.0; P < 0.05) was observed between the valuable and non-valuable yield of mycobacteria. Furthermore, the simplified concentration method had the best performance in terms of pure culture growth/minimal media contamination coupled with a cost benefit ratio of 0.10; the bleach method being the least. Given these findings, coupled with laboratory challenges in developing countries as well as ease of use on the field/cost effectiveness; we propose the simplified concentration as an optimal decontamination method for use in resource limited settings where TB remains an endemic problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
authors.forename: O I
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Falodun
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Adesokan
authors.forename: S I B
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Cadmus
mesh_terms: D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000458:organization & administration; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003666:Decontamination / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology*; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology