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| EDITORIAL |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 16
| Issue : 2 | Page : 52 |
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Editorial Comments
Biju Soman
Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
| Date of Web Publication | 14-Nov-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Biju Soman
Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0972-1282.144702
How to cite this article:
Soman B. Editorial Comments. J Acad Clin Microbiol 2014;16:52 |
It has been a privilege to review the January-June 2014 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Clinical Microbiologists. The explosive growth of science and technology beckon academicians and researchers to adopt a transdisciplinary approach to research and learning. [1] My approach in reviewing the issue of the journal was with this intention to enrich my public health curiosities by learning the current discourses in clinical microbiology. The J Acad Clin Microbiol would definitely help other medical professionals to get familiarized with the current discussions in clinical microbiology. Let me share my experience of reading through this issue with you.
Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) continue to be a common disease among the poor children in low hygienic situations in our country. General practitioners would benefit much if they are told which all antibiotics are effective in specific local contexts. Often culture and sensitivity test are taken after starting antibiotic treatment, which actually negates the very purpose of the investigation. Shetty and Shetty have made a brilliant attempt of deciphering from this dirty data in Mangalore. [2] However, it seems the authors have not told the story fully, for example, they have mentioned that diabetes status was collected, but there is no mention about whether it has any impact on the study outcomes.
It is heartening to read that Penicillin, the cheap and time-tested antibiotic, is still useful against many community-acquired infections and it is true even in Kerala, a state with rampant misuse of over the counter medicines including antibiotics. [3],[4] However, the report by Chinnu et al., will caution us from using it blindly. [5] The article on suppurative keratitis is equally interesting and raises the curiosity level of non-microbiologists like me on what would be the implication of polymicrobial isolates that form the bulk of the cases. [6] Similarly, I got a clue from the article that contact lens users are at a greater risk of getting Acanthamoeba infection, but I have to read up further get a definite idea on this. [7] Giving a brief description on these matters would benefit the non-microbiologists and would help to widen your readership.
The article by Sekar et al., on isolates of Enterobacteriaceae highlights the need for better organized microbiology laboratories in the country with sophisticated tests like polymerase chain reaction (PCR). [8] The case reports in this issue of the journal are equally impressive, the fact that one-third of diagnosed tuberculosis are extrapulmonary, add fuel to our criticism that we do not have disease control program for tuberculosis and the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP) is just a treatment strategy. [9] For control of tuberculosis we need to address the latent and extrapulmonary cases more rigorously.
The journal's website is equally elegant and tidy. Those clear instructions on the formats and style of writing and the given templates are real resources for new authors to get accustomed to the rules of scientific writing. However, the instructions in reference style formatting are inadequate or not up to the current standards. The examples given in the Reference Style (PPS) are that of Lung India and do not match with your requirements. Nowadays, authors would be using bibliographic softwares, so it would be better to provide a reference style for J Acad Clin Microbiol and make it available in style repositories of Zotero, Endnote, and other commonly used bibliographic tools. It is worth noting that Lung India, Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology, and Indian Clinical Microbiology, etc., all provide their own styles in the style repositories of leading bibliographic softwares like Zotero and Endnote.
In nutshell, I enjoyed and learned many things by reviewing this issue. Strict adherence to the Introduction, Methodology, Results, Analysis, and Discussion (IMRAD) framework as advocated in your website and taking care of the potential needs of the non-microbiologist readers would help to widen your readership. Let us hope that J Acad Clin Microbiol would be a prominent participant in future transdisciplinary discourses.
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