The increasing role of DNA molecular technologies in infection control-related medical bacteriology: what the infection prevention specialist needs to know

Abstract

Molecular biology has the potential to revolutionise the way in which diagnostic tests are delivered in order to optimise care of infected patients, whether they are in hospital or in the community. Many routine hospital diagnostic laboratories are now beginning to adopt commercial molecular kits, which have dramatically expanded the availability of such tests into hospitals, which previously would not have used them. This has created a need among infection prevention specialists, microbiologists and infection control doctors as to what these tests mean, and how to formulate policy around them, so that there is added value for their use in the infection prevention scenario. This review wishes to explore their basis, their application in the infection prevention setting, their interpretation, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, in order to better inform infection prevention specialists.