With ever increasing population leading to overcrowding and unhygienic practices, diarrhoeal parasites pose a serious threat to developing countries with limited resources. Microscopic observation of wet mounts by iodine mount method thus far remains the most commonly used method for identifying ova and cysts of parasites from stool specimens. While this method is easy, less time consuming, inexpensive, allowing direct visualization of parasitic ova and cyst morphology, on the downside, the preparation dries within a few minutes of making thereby rendering it unreadable. Making a fresh preparation is required each time when the slide is to be used later for consultation or demonstration purposes thereby consuming resources and the technician’s time. Hence, a very simple, inexpensive method alternative to iodine mount that stays longer without drying for expert confirmation without the need for repeated laboratory resource usage is proposed in an article in Journal of Medical Microbiology. A mounting solution of 0.25% glycerol in iodine solution is studied to be an equally functional as iodine and lasts longer without getting dried up.

Wet mounts prepared using iodine-glycerol solution were observed to last longer without getting dried up even after 48 hours while the iodine wet mounts dried up in 10 minutes.

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