title: Car windshield fragments as cheap alternative glass beads for homogenization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures in a resource-limited setting.
abstract: Tuberculosis is a global health problem which has been compounded by the emergence and rapid spread of drug resistant strains. Phenotypic drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis usually requires homogenization of cultures using 3-5mm glass beads. In resource limited settings, these important material may either not be readily available in the country as in our case requiring that one orders them from abroad or they may be too expensive. In both situations, this would impact on the usually lean budget. In our centre were we recently introduced tuberculosis culture and drug susceptibility testing using the Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility (MODS) technique, we successfully used glass fragments from a broken car windshield obtained from a mechanic workshop to homogenize solid cultures to prepare positive controls. All cultures homogenized with these local beads gave consistent MODS results. The challenge of the limited availability of resources for research in resource limited settings can be met by adapting available materials to achieve results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria. Electronic address: drochang@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Ernest Afu
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ochang
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Dami
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Collier
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Ibidunni
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bode-Sojobi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oladele
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Oyinlola O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Oduyebo
keywords: Drug susceptibility test; Glass beads; MDR-TB; Tuberculosis culture