Reaching Operational Efficiency Goals in the Manufacturing Industry

Advice When Using Viral Transport Media

24 January 2022

Terrence Hayes

When there are viral outbreaks, regular testing becomes pretty important. Viral transport media can be used to house samples before they're officially tested for a particular virus. You'll just want to use these best practices if you're tasked with handling or shipping them.

Use Transport Media That's Hard to Penetrate

If there were samples with strains of viruses, you want them remaining inside viral transport media until the transportation is complete. Any instances of penetration could lead to sample loss, contamination, and further infection.

You thus want to look at the viral transport media on the market and see what's truly going to hold up to handling and shipping procedures. A premium-grade plastic will give you more protection against penetration. Even if your transport media was bumped or dropped, durable plastic will keep penetration from happening and your samples won't suffer as a consequence.

Make Sure Paperwork Lines up With Transport Media 

When you go to send off viral samples to be further tested at labs, you'll often complete paperwork for proper documentation. Some things you'll indicate include where the sample came from and when it was taken.

When completing this documentation, make sure it lines up with the particular viral transport media that you're using. Each tube will have labels and on them are unique identification numbers. Make sure these numbers are accurate in the documentation, so that samples don't get mixed up and then create further hurdles you have to overcome.

Review Storage Protocols

If you're not going to be testing viral samples for a while, then you need to understand proper storage protocols when keeping them in viral transport media. Then you won't have to worry about things like contamination or samples leaking out and subsequently creating safety issues.

You need to pay attention to aspects like proper storage temperature range and materials. Also, you'll typically need to keep all viral transport media upright while in storage so that samples aren't prone to leaking out. If there are further storage instructions, you'll be able to find out by consulting with the viral transport media supplier.

Viral samples can now be handled and shipped in a much safer manner thanks to transport media. It has continued to evolve over the years. If you just work with it carefully and choose the right variety to begin with, you'll have all the controls in place that you need when dealing with viral samples for important scientific analysis. Contact a shipping company for info about covid-19 transport media. 

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