Disposable virus preservation tubes for detection of novel coronaviruses
Session 1: Collection
Collection of pharyngeal swabs for detection of novel coronaviruses is an effective way to screen for occult infection with novel coronaviruses. The person responsible for collection is often at great risk of infection because he or she has to come into direct contact with the other person's body.
The doctor guides the sampling subject to remove the mask, quickly obtains the specimen from the other person's mouth, puts the swab into a test tube and cuts off the excess, caps the bottle and shakes it several times to put it into a sealed bag ...... The whole process takes less than a minute. Each sampling, the doctor's movements are cautious and rapid. For safety reasons, they collected a sample for each, they have to sterilize once. Sampling took an average of 1 minute, and disinfection took an average of 2 minutes.
Dr. Wei Jiaxin, a doctor on duty at the Provincial Women's and Children's Medical Center, quickly takes a pharyngeal swab specimen from the mouth of a child suspected of having New Coronary Pneumonia in the isolation ward of the Haikou Orthopedic and Diabetes Hospital on Feb. 8.
Dr. Wei Jiaxin puts a pharyngeal swab into a test tube and labels it to complete pharyngeal swab collection in the isolation ward of Haikou Orthopedic and Diabetes Hospital on Feb. 8.
Session 2: Transportation
At 16:00 every day, in the isolation ward of the sentinel site for suspected pediatric patients, the medical staff of Hainan Women and Children Medical Center on duty handed over the specimens to the on-duty staff of the Laboratory Department for transportation. clinical specimens tested within 24 hours were placed in biosafety transport boxes and transported to the laboratory for storage at 4℃. At the same time, complete information on the novel coronavirus test delivery form is filled out.
On February 11, at the entrance of the Haikou Orthopedic and Diabetes Hospital, doctors from the Laboratory Department of the Provincial Women's and Children's Medical Center quietly transported the biosafety transport box containing the pharyngeal swab samples of the children to the PCR laboratory.
Session 3: Acceptance
Transferring the biosafety transport box into the laboratory, opening the biosafety transport box, disinfecting the samples received in the biosafety cabinet, level by level, in strict accordance with the protocol.
After the samples are delivered from the isolation ward to the laboratory for acceptance, the staff do layers of protection, wear protective clothing, gloves, goggles and masks, etc., and enter the PCR laboratory to start working. The experimental area of the new coronavirus nucleic acid test is divided into three blocks, respectively, the reagent configuration area, nucleic acid extraction area and amplification area. Each zone has a separate laboratory for sample transfer through the internal transfer compartment.
On February 10, the laboratory physicians quietly received samples in the PCR lab sample receiving area.
Testing
One of the most critical and dangerous steps is the sample nucleic acid extraction.
Because the staff has to directly face the sample, the sample is extracted from the child's throat swab, placed in the virus preservation tube, after opening the lid may bring the risk of aerosol transmission. The staff has to aspirate the samples with a pipette gun, and if not done properly, the particles in the samples may splash into the air and cause secondary infection to them. Aerosols are also produced during experimental operations, and to ensure safety staff have to inactivate the samples before the experiment, i.e., put them in a 56°C environment for 30 minutes. After inactivation, the samples are then subjected to nucleic acid extraction.
Laboratory test results are critical to each patient and must be carefully reviewed by the inspector many times before reporting the test results.
Currently, there are 10 laboratories in Hainan Province that have been conducting nucleic acid testing for novel coronaviruses, and the PCR laboratory of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the Women and Children's Medical Center of Hainan Province is one of them. These laboratories have a maximum daily testing capacity of about 1,200 copies, and can undertake the task of testing suspected cases in the province to achieve a dynamic "zero" detection of suspected viral nucleic acid cases.
On February 10, in the PCR laboratory, the laboratory doctor Lu Zhe was dispensing reagents.
On February 10, in the PCR laboratory, laboratory doctors Quiet (left) and Lu Zhe were doing the nucleic acid test for the new coronavirus.
