A note on the use of Stuart's transport medium for the isolation of the Gonococcus.

The application of cultural methods to the diagnosis of gonorrhoea in small clinics has been hindered in the past by the lack of laboratory facilities. The gonococcus is fastidious in its nutritive requirements and the culture media used to grow it have been elaborated by empirical methods because we have no exact knowledge of the substances necessary for its growth. In clinics not closely associated with a laboratory, some delay in inoculating specimens taken from patients is unavoidable, and this delay militates against the successful cultivation of the organism. Various transport media have been devised to maintain the viability of the gonococcus until it can be inoculated on to a nutritive medium. Experience with Stuart's transport medium (Stuart, 1946) is reported in this note. A difficulty encountered with some transport media has been the overgrowth of gonococci by other organisms present in the secretions. Attempts to overcome this by the addition to these media of various dyes and bacteriostatic agents have not been completely successful because the gonococcus is itself very sensitive to these agents. In Stuart's medium the problem is approached in a different way. The medium contains no nutrient material and consists essentially of a buffered semi-solid agar made anaerobic by the addition of sodium thioglycollate. Oxidative processes in organisms held in the medium are cut down to a minimum and growth does not occur until they are transferred to a nutrient medium.