Microbiology
This division has played an important role over the past 50 years in many significant developments in the diagnosis and pathogenesis of childhood infectious diseases, still the dominant cause of morbidity and mortality in infancy and childhood.
At the present time, the laboratory provides diagnostic services for a wide range of infections in children, from neonates, to healthy children with common infections, to the severely immunocompromised host (transplant, HIV patient) with unusual bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections. The laboratory is also very active in teaching and research.
Some important advances we have made include:
- Development of the agar dilution method for susceptibility testing
- Identification of the first cephalosporinase (an enzyme which breaks down cephalosporin antibiotics in addition to penicillin)
- Cultivation and study of mycoplasmas and their role in reproductive failure and neonatal infections
- Natural history and diagnosis of Campylobacter jejuni gastrointestinal infections (the most common bacterial cause of diarrhea)
- Identification of Burkholderia cepacia as an important cause of pneumonia in cystic fibrosis patients
- Discovery of the causative role of verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli in diarrhea ("Hamburger disease") and its potentially fatal complication, the hemolytic uremic syndrome.
There are three main laboratories in the Division of Microbiology:
- Bacteriology
- Mycology and Parasitology
- Molecular Microbiology and Virology
There are special interests in infection control, serious fungal infections and resistance to antifungal agents, bacterial resistance to antibiotics and appropriate utilization of microbiology tests. The rapid diagnosis of fastidious paediatric pathogens by molecular methods has been achieved for Bordetella, Pertussis (whooping cough), Mycoplasma Pneumoniae (the most common cause of Pneumonia in children) and for Ureaplasma Urealyticum (agent of pre and perinatal infections).
See the Laboratory services for more information.
If you have a question, a comment, or would like to contact someone in the Division of Microbiology, please contact:
Effie Economidis
Division Support
Microbiology
The Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Avenue
Room 3652, Atrium
Toronto, ON M5G 1X8
Canada
Tel: 416-813-5990
Fax: 416-813-6257
email: effie.economidis@sickkids.ca
Susan Richardson
Division Head of Microbiology
Paediatric Laboratory Medicine
The Hospital For Sick Children
Phone: 416-813-5992
email: susan.richardson@sickkids.ca