Staining procedure

Staining procedure Good stains, especially good carbolfuchsin, are essential to detect high numbers of AFB-positives. Only a good stain will be able to show the AFB, also when these are rare. AFB damaged by treatment are difficult to stain, so all follow-up smears will often be negative when the quality of the carbolfuchsine is substandard. Stain preparation requires some equipment for weighing and measuring, and also pure water without mycobacteria from the environment (they often colonize water tanks and taps). Therefore preparation of stains should be done at one laboratory at district level, with checks for quality before they are distributed to the peripheral laboratories.