If a patient has a bacterial load of 1,000,000 CFU/mL and a treatment reduces it by 99.9%, what is the remaining bacterial load?

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Q: If a patient has a bacterial load of 1,000,000 CFU/mL and a treatment reduces it by 99.9%, what is the remaining bacterial load?

Solution: A reduction of 99.9% means that 0.1% of the original load remains. 0.1% of 1,000,000 CFU/mL is 1,000 CFU/mL.

Steps: 6

Step 1: Understand that CFU/mL stands for 'colony-forming units per milliliter', which is a way to measure the number of bacteria.
Step 2: Identify the initial bacterial load, which is 1,000,000 CFU/mL.
Step 3: Recognize that a reduction of 99.9% means that only 0.1% of the original bacterial load will remain.
Step 4: Calculate 0.1% of 1,000,000 CFU/mL. To do this, multiply 1,000,000 by 0.001 (which is 0.1% in decimal form).
Step 5: Perform the multiplication: 1,000,000 * 0.001 = 1,000.
Step 6: Conclude that the remaining bacterial load after the treatment is 1,000 CFU/mL.