Bacterial infection and viral infection sometimes share similar symptoms, such as runny nose and fever. However, they are different in pathology and treatment. Antibiotics cannot treat viral infection, and antimicrobial resistance can be caused when antimicrobials are used to unmatched pathogens, resulting ultimate ineffectiveness of drugs against pathogen and uncurable, fatal diseases. Therefore, identifying infection category should be the first step of treatment.


Classic Test—WBC
When a patient goes to hospital, WBC is usually prescribed to him. White blood cells, neutrophils and lymphocytes are widely employed for identifying infection type. However, its normal range can vary from person to person. The reference range is wide, and often a test result that is 30% higher than the ceiling can be considered evidence for diagnosis. Furthermore, when severe infection suppresses the bone marrow function, WBC may show a decrease. Therefore, WBC results alone are not sufficient for an accurate diagnosis.
 
Gold Standard—Bacteria Culture
Bacteria culture can help determine the pathogen of infection, assisting diagnosis and prescription. It takes sample from a patient’s blood, urine, skin or other part of body according to the suspected infection. However, it requires 1 or more days to get a result. The waiting time can be torturing for patients, or even fatal.
 
Inflammatory Markers—CRP and PCT
As recommended by various international institutions, a combined test of multiple inflammatory markers can greatly assist in the diagnosis and directing antibiotic usage.
 
Triggered by various inflammatory cytokines, CRP increases greatly at bacterial infections but mildly at viral infection. However, there has been no referable threshold to attribute a test result into bacterial or viral infection. Thus, other test results and the clinical symptoms need to be taken into consideration.
 
PCT in serum samples from healthy people are usually low, below 0.0025ug/L. The level of PCT is diverse in non-infectious and infectious conditions, especially in systemic infection. Furthermore, PCT is faster than CRP and SAA in increasing infection and decreasing treatment, making it a satisfactory marker for monitoring antibiotic usage. Up to now, many expert consensuses have been launched to direct antibiotic usage. And lately, Wondfo held a webinar for experts discussing the various roles of PCT in sepsis, antimicrobial stewardship, COVID-19 management and intensive care. Click here to watch the whole record of webinar.


Conclusion
Antibiotic misuse is quite common nowadays and has already caused several cases of pandrug-resistant infection. Wondfo provides CRP Rapid Quantitative Test together with PCT Rapid Quantitative Test, with turnaround time being 3 mins and 15 mins respectively. Simple operation with portable instrument allows immediate tests on site, greatly saving time for life.
 
Wondfo Biotech has been committed to safeguarding people’s health and happiness, and to improving lives with better products, services, and solutions. With cutting-edge technologies and products of promised quality, we care everyone’s health, and race for life to save every second.