Principles of health protection and safety rules in the microbiology laboratory -- The main principles of safe work in the microbiology laboratory -- Safety instructions for work in the microbiology laboratory -- Principal microbiological procedures -- The aims of the clinical microbiology laboratory -- Collection, handling and transport of clinical specimens -- Microscopy techniques for diagnosis of infection -- Native preparation -- Bright field microscopy -- Dark field microscopy -- Stained preparation -- Simple (monochromatic) stain -- Gram stain -- Staining of acid-fast microbes (Ziehl-Neelsen stain) -- Staining of metachromatic granules -- Staining of microbial capsules (Burri stain) -- Staining of microbial spores (Wirtz-Conklin stain) -- Giemsa stain; vaginal secretion examination -- Cultivation of bacteria -- Cultivation of microorganisms growing under aerobic conditions -- Cultivation of microorganisms growing under anaerobic conditions -- Determining bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics -- Disc diffusion test -- Standard dilution micromethod MIC method -- E-test -- Determining activity of combined antibiotics -- Detection of bacterial 6-lactamases -- Examination methods in serology -- Precipitation and its modifications -- (precipitation in agar, Ascoli thermal precipitation reaction) -- Agglutination and its modifications -- (Widal reaction, latex agglutination, hemagglutination, slide agglutination) -- Complement fixation test -- Fluorescent antibody technique -- Enzyme-labelled antibodies (enzyme immunoassay) -- Neutralization test -- Laboratory diagnosis of syphilis