Earlier this year, former Chief Biomedical Scientist Ivor J Mitchelmore and his colleagues set up a microbiology culture service, where they used MWE swabs, media and Microloops to detect bacteria such as S. aureus, etc.

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a report on acute hepatitis in children with an unknown origin. Even though Adenovirus is a hypothesis as being one of the strongly associated reasons for Hepatitis in this report, it is still under investigation. United Kingdom is one of the highly affected countries. PCR analysis has been the first line of diagnosis. Blood sampling, respiratory sampling and stool sampling are being used to collect specimen. Respiratory specimen in a VTM such as the SIGMA-VIROCULT® (Viral transport media) and SIGMA-MM™ inactivation media can be used to collect samples.

Poliovirus can be cultured from faeces which usually goes through a prolonged cell culture process. MWE’s FECAL TRANSWAB® compatible with PCR, would be a suitable medium to collect and transport the sample to the laboratory if faecal sample was not readily available or desirable.

Monkeypox virus webinar hosted by MWE and Prolab Diagnostics, featuring Neil Bentley, OBE, Mark Reed - Prolab Diagnostics, Richard Seuke - MWE

It is imperative that any sampling device does not carry non-viable (dead) organisms as they may guide users towards the wrong conclusion. MWE products consistently pass every aspect of M40-A2 requirements, including absence of non-viable organisms.

Collection and storage of viral specimen is the most important factor in obtaining a reliable and accurate diagnostic result.

CLSI’s ‘Quality Control of Microbiological Transport Systems’ provides a method to determine collection devices suitable for the transport of viral specimens over extended distances

SIGMA VIROCULT® has been proven to be effective at detection of Herpes on the BD Max™ and Smartcycler® automated platforms