Blood, bone marrow, CSF, dermal, ocular, genital, mucosal, oral, rectal, respiratory, stool, tissue, urine or biopsy specimen

The specimen should be collected during the acute phase of the disease as follows:

Blood: Collect 5 mL whole blood into a heparinized tube. Send at room temperature. (NO GEL!)

CSF: Collect 1 mL CSF aseptically in a sterile dry screw-cap vial. Refrigerate immediately.

Skin Lesions: Open the vesicle and absorb the exudate into a dry swab and/or vigorously scrape the base of a freshly exposed lesion with a swab to obtain cells that contain viruses. If enough vesicle fluid is available, aspirate the fluid with a fine gauge needle and tuberculin syringe, and place the fluid into cold viral transport medium. Use viral swabs for specimen collection. Refrigerate immediately.

Eye Swab or Scraping: Use a viral swab to collect conjunctival material. Take conjunctival scrapings with a fine sterile spatula and transfer the scraping to a viral transport medium. Refrigerate immediately.

Genital Swab: See skin. Refrigerate immediately.

Rectal Swab: Insert a sterile swab 2" to 4" into the rectum and rub the mucosa. The swab may be placed into cold virus transport medium. Refrigerate immediately.

Throat Swab: Carefully rub the posterior wall of the nasopharynx with a dry, sterile swab. Avoid touching the tongue or buccal mucosa. Place the swab in a viral transport tube.

Feces: Collect 4-8 g of feces (about the size of a thumbnail) and place in a clean, screw-cap container. Do not dilute the specimen or use preservatives. A viral swab is acceptable. Refrigerate immediately.

Tissue: Use a fresh set of sterile instruments to collect each tissue. Place each specimen in its own dry, sterile, nontoxic screw-cap container. To prevent the tissue from drying out, add a small amount of viral transport medium to the container. Refrigerate immediately.

Urine: Collect clean-catch, midstream urine in a screw-cap, sterile plastic container. Refrigerate immediately.

Add the specimen source to the HLAB prompt

THE SPECIMEN SHOULD ARRIVE WITHIN 72 HOURS OF COLLECTION OR THE TESTING MAY BE CANCELED.

Bacterial swab specimen; specimen received in grossly leaking transport container; dry specimen; specimen submitted in fixative or additive; specimen received in expired transport media or incorrect or non-validated transport device; inappropriate specimen transport conditions; specimen received after prolonged delay in transport (usually more than 72 hours); specimen types other than blood stored or transported at room temperature; wooden shaft swab in transport device; unlabeled specimen or name discrepancy between specimen and request label; hemolyzed blood sample

Any viral transport medium manufactured by KANG JIAN  is unacceptable!

Renji Medical tube is unacceptable.

Covid swab/media is unacceptable.

87252 - Viral Culture General (EAP 30635210)