Differences between Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Microbiology

Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Microbiology are autonomous and specific sectors of the broader scientific object of Medical Microbiology. Microbiology of Public Health focuses on prevention (e.g. mechanisms to avoid the spread of foodborne outbreaks) and Clinical Microbiology focuses on treatment (e.g. finding the appropriate antimicrobial agent for administration to a patient).

Microbiology of Public Health is studying the spread of a pathogenic agent in a group (e.g. controlling an outbreak of Salmonella in a camp) and Clinical Microbiology deals with the study of an infection at an individual level (e.g., laboratory investigation of a febrile diarrhea incident in a particular patient). Clinical Microbiology, discusses the causes and treatment of infection at the individual level, while Public Health Microbiology is involved in the investigation of factors and properties of microorganisms that contribute to transmission in human populations, animal populations, groups of plants and the dispersal of microorganisms in the environment. These features of Public Health Microbiology engage in the development of wider strategies for preventing and halting the transmission of infectious diseases in the wider community, while Clinical Microbiology is limited to diagnosis and treatment of individuals.

Public Health Microbiology studies the classification and standardization of micro-organisms (e.g. classification of the genus Salmonella as a scattering of cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals), the natural history of infections and the ecological nests of pathogenic microorganisms, the pathophysiology of infections in a host organism and the immune responses in the host organism, the way a pathogen is spread between people or from the environment to humans, the appearance and spread of organisms resistant to antibiotics (e.g. outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium). Microbiology of Public Health is closely intertwined with the science of epidemiology in terms of studying the spread of infectious diseases and is engaged in investigating outbreaks, organizing state control mechanisms of disease, food control and environmental protection. All these features give a social dimension to the Public Health Microbiology opposed to strict clinical dimension of Clinical Microbiology.