Fungal Culture (Fungus/Cryptococcus/Candida)

Sterile container: Swab, pus, tissue, CSF, skin scrapping, hair, nails clipping, ETT, Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and urine.

Skin scraping:- Disinfect skin lesions with alcohol, scrape the active borders of the lesion to collect epidermal scales into a dry sterile container. Skin scraping may also be sealed between 2 glass slides and taped at each end. The concealed slides are to be placed into a clean glass slide holder.

Nails: Disinfect nails with alcohol gauze, obtain the material below the infected nail (subungual debris) and submit in a dry sterile container.

Hair: Remove representative abnormal hair with forceps and scrape some epidermal scalp scales into a dry sterile container. Hair may also be sealed between 2 glass slides and taped at each end. The concealed slides are to be placed into a clean glass slide holder.

Stool: Collect a portion of fresh stool in wide-mouth stool container. Send to Lab within 2 hrs.