Are specimen containers, work surfaces and laboratory wastes properly decontaminated?
Paper towels, cotton swabs or other materials used for wiping containers or surfaces should be treated as infectious wastes. Any disinfectants used to wipe sample containers or work surfaces should be active against polioviruses, and should be used at the correct concentration with the appropriate exposure time. Laboratory wastes should be placed directly into autoclavable containers and autoclaved before discarding. Are remnants of stool samples stored in original containers at -20 C for at least 12 months? This is important in case of a need to repeat the virus isolation process. Could materials have been mis-labelled during testing? Transfer of materials to unlabeled containers is the most common cause of switched specimens. A wild poliovirus result may be assigned to the wrong patient or sample if mis-labelling occurs while a wild poliovirus sample is being manipulated. To avoid this risk, samples and cell culture materials should always be transferred into pre-labelled tubes. A go
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