A to Z of medical tests
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When and why

These are essential tests to diagnose the cause of an infection especially if the symptoms are fever, diarrhoea, cough and breathlessness. These tests involve placing specimens, e.g. urine, stool, blood and sputum onto a special culture medium or plates which will allow any infecting organisms such as bacteria, viruses or fungi to grow. If a bacterium is grown, the sensitivity of the organism can then be tested against various antibiotics to determine the right treatment. Apart from body fluids, other specimens can be sent for culture such as a swab from an ulcer or samples of tissue (biopsy).

How it will help

There are many opportunistic or other infections that can occur in HIV and the ability to identify these is essential to confirm a diagnosis and to determine the right treatment. Sometimes it can be very difficult to identify the cause of a fever and multiple specimens are sent to the laboratory to try and culture the organism responsible.