A patient's vaginal specimen is sent from the walk-in clinic to the microbiology laboratory. There it is cultured on bacteriological media and then placed into an ambient air incubator set at 22% oxygen and 37 degrees Celsius. The patient is strongly suspected of having gonorrhea. She had sexual contact with a partner recently diagnosed with gonorrhea, and she is now displaying the typical symptoms of a vaginal exudate or fluid. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a microaerophilic gram-negative coccus-shaped bacterium. Seventy-two hours later, the culture has still not grown Neisseria gonorrhoeae so the lab reports the results back as negative. Interpret this result.

Question

A. The culture was placed into the wrong environment for Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
B. The inoculating loop was too hot while streaking the specimen onto agar medium, and the bacteria were all killed.
C. Neisseria gonorrhoeae cannot be grown in bacteriological media and requires genetic analysis for identification.
D. The clinical personnel took the sample from an incorrect body area.

Answer 1

Answer: A