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SummaryHigh-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and different high-performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) methods have been developed for the detection and quantitation of cyanobacterial toxins in environmental samples.Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are responsible for toxic contamination of fresh water. Several serious episodes involving microcystins have been reported in recent years; the most common and toxic of these hepatotoxins is microcystin-LR (MC-LR). Sensitive analytical methodologies are required for determination of these compounds because of the implications for human health when the toxins are present in drinking water.Different modes of operation of HPCE were used and the results obtained were compared with those obtained by HPLC. Citrate buffer resulted in good separation of the microcystins when capillary electrophoresis was used in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and capillary isotachophoresis (CITP) modes; borate buffer containing sodium dodecyl sulphonate (SDS) was used in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). Conditions were optimized and the methods were applied to water samples and cyanobacterial cells containing microcystins. Results obtained by use of HPLC-UV and different modes of operation of CE-UV were compared in terms of sensitivi~,, selectivi~,, and efficiency.

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Objectives: Timely implementation of influenza infection control and treatment can significantly reduce the impact on Hospital resources and patient management when demand is at peak. Turnaround times of Laboratory based screening tests for the diagnosis of influenza may have an impact on the implementation of infection control measures and treatment. In this study the objectives included determining the correlation between the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care testing (POCT) instrument using the Influenza A&B2 test and the laboratory based GeneXpert Flu+RSV kit. In addition the impact of the POCT instrument on the prescription of antivirals and antibiotics was evaluated by comparing with practice when the instrument was not in place. Results:The results of the correlation study with a cohort of 54 patients revealed the Abbott ID NOW POCT has 92% sensitivity for the detection of Influenza A, while specificity was 100% for both Influenza A and B. The impact of the POCT instrument on the frequency of prescription of antivirals and amount of antibiotics consumed (33% reduction in antibiotic consumption in a cohort of 65 (2017) and 61 (2018)) was significant. In addition the average patient length of Hospital stay was significantly reduced from 5.26 days to 3.73 days.