Problems with laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases in primary health care facilities

The vast majority of patients with acute enteric and respiratory infections are treated in the outpatient setting. The low identification of pathogens with significant amounts of research leads to errors in choosing etiotropic treatment, to the biased assessment of the epidemic situation, and to the inefficient use of limited financial resources of facilities. The way to organize the preanalytical stage of microbiological studies in the outpatient settings is fundamentally different from that in the inpatient settings, which is associated with the limited time of patient contact with healthcare workers and with the remoteness of the patient from the laboratory. The recent active centralization of research in the large laboratory centers increases material delivery time. The article analyzes the organizational, methodological and technical problems with the organization of a preanalytic stage of microbiological studies faced by outpatient facilities, and without which the etiological interpretation of infectious diseases cannot be improved.

outpatient facilities, preanalytical stage of microbiological studies, transport media