Background: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common pathogen isolated. Accurate and rapid identification of S. aureus and MRSA is of great importance for proper care of the patient. Keeping this in mind, we had used Pastorex Staph plus rapid agglutination test to confirm S. aureus. Aim: To evaluate Pastorex Staph plus rapid agglutination test for confirming Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical specimens. Study Design: Cross-sectional type. Methodology: This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. It included all clinical samples, where Staphylococcus spp. was isolated. The phenotypic confirmation of the Original Research Article

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is one of the important causative factors for premature or low-birth infants, postpartum urinary tract infections and higher fetal mortality rates in pregnant women Methods: Thirty-two asymptomatic females from the antenatal clinic, twenty-five females admitted to the post-natal ward and ten nonpregnant females were randomly selected. Clean-catch midstream urine sample was collected and processed for culture and sensitivity as per standard guidelines.Results: Overall incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was 11.9%. The incidence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant females was 3.1% whereas the incidence in post-natal females was 40%. None of the non-pregnant females had asymptomatic bacteriuria. Conclusion: Screening of antenatal and post-partum females is required to avoid adverse outcomes.

Introduction: Infertility is a major public health problem across worldwide and in India. As per WHO, 60 to 80 million couples worldwide currently suffer from infertility. The role of female reproductive tract infection, symptomatic or asymptomatic, is well recognized. Studies reveal that Candida albicans have spermimmobilizing property which might lead to infertility. Keeping this in mind the present study was done. Aim: To screen infertile females for vaginal candidiasis. Material & Methods: 100 infertile women were screened for vaginal candidiasis. High Vaginal swab collected from them were processed for fungal culture using conventional methods. Anti-Fungal susceptibility testing was done for all the isolates of Candida spp. as per guidelines. Results: 17% of the patients suffered from vaginal candidiasis. Candida albicans followed by Candida tropicalis were the most common isolates. None of the isolates were resistant to Amphotericin B and Nystatin while maximum resistance was shown for Fluconazole. Conclusion: There was more predominance of non albicans Candida in the study thereby showing a change in causative agent of vaginal candidiasis. Moreover since studies show sperm-immobilising property of Candida spp., infertile women should be routinely screened for vaginal candidiasis.