Brief communication: rapid culture of tubercle bacilli

One of the biggest obstacles to the correct diagnosis and efficient treatment of tuberculosis is the absence of a rapid technique for culturing tubercle bacilli and for testing their susceptibility to antituberculosis drugs. Current procedures typically take 6-10 weeks to perform. This article describes a simple, rapid, reliable and cheap method of culturing tubercle bacilli using a liquid medium consisting of a mixture of coconut water, horse serum, glycerol and benzylpenicillin. Addition of specific concentrations of antituberculosis drugs to the medium, permits information on the drug susceptibility of tubercle bacilli to be obtained in only 6 days. The procedure requires no special instruments or technical skill and can therefore be carried out routinely in the average laboratory in developing countries.