An outbreak of streptococcal pharyngitis has occurred in a remote village. In order to carry out the epidemiological investigations of the outbreak it is necessary to perform the culture of the throat swab of the patients suffering from the disease. The transport media of choice would be:

Ans. is 'b' i.e., Pike's media(Ref: Ananthanarayan, 9th/e, p. 215 and 8th/e, p. 211)"For cultures, swabs should be collected under vision from the affected site and either plated immediately or sent to the laboratory in Pike's medium (blood agar containing crystal violet and sodium azide)."* This medium is also used to preserve Streptococcus pyogenes, pneumococci and Haemophilus influenzae from nose and throat swabs.* Crystal violet inhibits gram positive bacteria and sodium azide inhibits gram-negative rods and non-haemolytic streptococci.