[The role of the clinical microbiology laboratory in the past].

Over the past 150 years, since Koch first isolated the tubercle bacillus, clinical microbiologists have used culturing techniques to demonstrate of the presence of pathogenic microorganisms associated with infectious diseases in clinical specimens. The development of medicine and chemotherapy and the improvement of sanitary conditions resulted in a marked decrease in infectious diseases. In stead of infections due to virulent pathogens, opportunistic infections in the compromised hosts by non-virulent or weakly virulent bacteria have been on the rise. As a result, determining the pathogenicity of an isolated bacteria becomes important. The past two decades have seen extensive efforts to exploit the potential of automation in clinical microbiology and to develop increasingly rapid procedures. New technology, such as molecular genetics, has also been introduced into clinical microbiology. For more correct and precise diagnoses of infectious diseases, the clinical microbiology laboratory should be enlarged as an "Infectious Disease Laboratory" to include an extended work on not only the detection of pathogens from the specimens of infectious disease, but also serodiagnostic tests and immunological tests of hosts. The "Infectious Disease Laboratory" would also play a key role in the control of nosocomial infection working with the infection control committee and infectious disease clinicians.