THE Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) has added to its laboratory equipment, a microbial identification system which will help the Authority in identifying bacteria and fungi.
By Kuda Pembere
The Authority in a statement said they acquired the state-of-the-art Vitek 2 XL Microbial Identification System.
“We have acquired a state-of-the-art microbial identification system, the Vitek 2 XL Microbial Identification System (MIS) and therefore are able to in the position of the identification of bacteria and fungi. This is crucial in many industrial applications including environmental monitoring, contamination investigation and cleanroom control,” said the Authority.
Furthermore, this system will assist the Authority in the rapid identification of microbial isolates from pharmaceutical and food industries from environmental monitoring isolates and swabs from personnel and water systems (contamination isolates).
Also, the Vitek 2XL MIS will also help in identifying isolates obtained during educational research projects.
The VITEK 2 system is said to have everything healthcare laboratories need for fast, accurate microbial identification, and antibiotic susceptibility testing.
The VITEK 2 microbial identification system includes an expanded identification database, the most automated platform available, rapid results, improved confidence, with minimal training time. The VITEK 2 system also provides greater automation while increasing safety and eliminating repetitive manual operations. The rapid response time means results can be provided more quickly than with manual microbial identification techniques.
The MCAZ has a Laboratory that is involved in quality control testing of medicines and medical devices. The laboratory is split into the Chemistry, Microbiology and Medical Devices Sections. The Laboratory has ISO 9001 & ISO 17025 Certifications and additionally WHO-Prequalification Status.
