Why does a developing world hospital keep sheep onsite? Blood. Lab people often seem the vampires of the hospital. Have you ever given a blood sample for lab testing? 
Blood is one of the easiest things to get as a sample to reveal a lot of information for a doctor to use. Ever heard of a petri dish or an agar plate? Well, in order to test body fluids for bacteria that eat or destroy blood cells, a little bit of blood is mixed into the agar gel in the plate. Usually this is 5% sheep’s blood because that is easy. If the bacteria are staph or strep from a throat swab, it will grow on the gel and “clear” the red blood color as it consumes it (see pic or visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar_plate).
There are families of bacteria that thrive on the iron in blood. These tests, a microscope and a good lab technician can help in diagnosis so that the doctor can prescribe proper treatment.
So, the well fed handful of sheep act as regular blood donors to help patients receive proper diagnosis. The lab people told me that it is common to also use out-of-date human blood from the blood bank when available, so nothing is wasted. In more developed countries, blood agar plates are just another item to place on order from a science supply catalog. The sheep are housed elsewhere.
Should the next trivia question be easier? J
No comments:
Post a Comment