Question

1. Why is a pinworm obtained by using tape against the anal folds?

2. Why is a microorganism subjected to both Gram staining and to acid-fast stain?

Answer 1

1. Pinworms are small, thin worms taht commonly infest young children, although anyone cane be infected. The best way to diagnose this is by doing a tape test in the morning before bathing (pinworms lay eggs at night).

Another way to detect pinworms is to shine a flashlight on the anal area.

2. Most bacterias can be differentiated based on their different cell wall components, that is either gram positive or gram negative groups by colouring the cell red or violet.

But some microorganisms such as Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Actinomyces, Legionella etc have a positive AFB smear.

And some microorganisms stain both the above tests negative.

Therefore a microorganism is subjected to both Gram staining and afb stain.