blood culture contamination

Medical term Special Collections

Growth of skin bacteria that entered the bottle during collection, giving a false-positive culture; prevented by thorough skin antisepsis.

Sources

• Blood culture (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia; facts checked only, A.D.A.M. wording not used) · U.S. National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus)
• WHO Guidelines on Drawing Blood: Best Practices in Phlebotomy (2010); official WHO IRIS PDF, also published as NCBI Bookshelf NBK138650 · World Health Organization

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Study Special Collections

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