The department provides comprehensive services in the field of medical microbiology (bacteriology, virology, mycology, and parasitology). It includes a separate antibiotic center and the National Reference Laboratory for Cytomegaloviruses. In co-operation with the Department of Biochemistry and Diagnostics, molecular-biological diagnostics is provided, especially in the fields of virology, mycology and mycobacteriology. In addition to routine diagnostics, staff members at the bacteriology and mycology laboratories are engaged in special diagnostics of infectious complications in ICU patients, patients with immunosuppression, patients with bloodstream infections, infections of CNS, bones, joints and mycobacterial infections. A major activity of our laboratories is microbiological control of the hospital environment, of equipment sterility, and of the cells and tissues used for treatment.
The ATB Center is part of a network of laboratories monitoring antibiotic resistance in the CR and is involved in the European Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net, ECDC, Stockholm). The Center for Antibiotic Policy, together with the ATB Center, systematically focuses on the surveillance of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic consumption and takes part in the program for the prevention and control of hospital infections.
Teaching of medical microbiology is provided for students of General Medicine and Dentistry and for bachelor’s degree students in the Nursing program. The department also participates in graduate education, specialist training, and lifelong education for doctors and other health professionals. It is an accredited workplace for doctoral study.
Every year, the department organizes a national conference known as Hradec Virology Days as well as expert regional seminars for physicians and laboratory workers at the University Hospital Hradec Králové and other health care facilities in eastern Bohemia. Within the workplace, grant projects dealing with the pathogenesis of infectious diseases are being worked on. The department has been certified by the NASKL audit II (National Authorization Center for Clinical Laboratories), and as a diagnostic laboratory for tissue workplaces at the University Hospital Hradec Králové successfully undergoes SÚKL (State Institute for Drug Control) professional audits.
