Due to the recent 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we have
been getting many inquiries about what type of swabs, media, and kits
should be used for COVID-19 sample collection prior to testing. Below we
have a short guide on which COPAN products meet the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) Interim...

Candida auris was first described in 2009 and was first reported in the United States in 2016.(1)  It is a member of a growing group of yeasts that can cause candidiasis, yeast infections that are normally of little consequence, and treatable through a number of anti-fungal...

For the medical community 2020 has arrived with a sinister start. In the midst of Flu season, a new and far more ominous virus has emerged, gripping the world’s attention. We are of course talking about the recent outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China with multinational reports emerging. The virus, a “cousin” of the SARS virus that struck in 2003 that caused nearly 8,100 cases, and resulted in 774...

Antibiotic resistance has been an emerging critical threat that, according to the CDC, results in more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections in the U.S each year, of which 35,000 are fatal (1).

To date, most every antibiotic at our disposal has been discovered in the dirt; these compounds exist as natural products that...

Long before Sir Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of
Penicillin in 1928, our ancestors were already putting the antimicrobial
effects of metal to use. 

Metals such as copper and silver were used as vessels by ancient
civilizations to keep their water clean and safe to drink (1). Researchers have
...

Seeing the doctor about concerns of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or urinary tract infections (UTIs) can be very uncomfortable for most people...

However, it's something that millions of Americans are compelled to do every year. According to the CDC, nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis (the most...

In recent years, greater appreciation for microbes inhabiting human body sites has emerged. In the female mammary gland, milk has been shown to contain bacterial species, reaching the ducts from the skin. Researchers have also discovered a diverse population of bacteria within tissue collected from sites all around the breast in women ages 18 to 90, not all of whom had a history of lactation...

While GBS screenings are the standard in the US and in Europe, there are still parts of the world where the 1 in 5 women globally who carry GBS may not receive screening or treatment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a study led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, involving more than 100 researchers who published a series of 11 research papers reporting on GBS occurances...

Antibiotic development has had its challenges recently; and while the concern of drug-resistant Gram-negative has been vastly described since the past couple of decades, there is a growing light at the end of the tunnel with the recent approval of the broad spectrum antimicrobials between 2015-17. Even more encouraging is the potential regulatory filing and approval of several antimicrobial candidates...

In an attempt to reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics, researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a tool that physicians can use to distinguish between a bacterial or viral infection in a patient that is suffering from an infection. Antibiotics are useless in treating viral infections; sadly, bacterial resistance is stimulated by the indiscriminate and often unnecessary use of...