BBMRI.at experts contributed to the development of an ISO standard for COVID testing that will help to improve testing procedures and contribute to a safer world.
ISO/TS 5798 provides recommendations for the design, development, verification, validation and implementation of analytical tests for detecting the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) using nucleic acid amplification.

Austria, Styria: “Steirischer Seuchenplan” – requires autopsies to be performed in BSL-3 laboratories

Biospecimens containing SARS-Cov-2:

• Heather A. Lankes, and Hala Makhlou (2020): Biospecimen Collection During the COVID-19 Pandemic Considerations for Biobanking, Am J Clin Pathol 2020;XX:1–0, DOI: 10.1093/AJCP/AQAA171

 

Key points:

• Current data suggest the earliest cases in the COVID-19 pandemic may have been as early as October 2019.
• Millions of biospecimens have been and will be collected from known and suspected cases, as well as asymptomatic and presymptomatic individuals for various purposes.
• Biosafety considerations intended to complement evolving CDC and WHO guidelines are presented.

 

• Wenling Wang (11 March 2020): Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Different Types of Clinical Specimens, JAMA. 2020;323(18):1843–1844, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.3786

 

Key points:

PCR test on specimens from COVID-19 patients with fever, dry cough, and fatigue revealed that the virus was present in the following specimens;

– Highest rates: in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (14 positive results of 15 samples; 93%),

– followed by sputum (72 of 104; 72%),

– nasal swabs (5 of 8; 63%),

– fibrobronchoscope brush biopsy (6 of 13; 46%),

– pharyngeal swabs (126 of 398; 32%),

– and feces (44 of 153; 29%).

– Lower positive rates were found in and blood (3 of 307; 1%).

– None in urine (0 of 72; 0%).

 

• Anthony F. Henwood (2020): Coronavirus disinfection in histopathology, Journal of Histotechnology, DOI: 10.1080/01478885.2020.1734718

This technical note presents disinfection procedures and histotechnology processes for corona virus containing specimens and using data obtained from similar coronaviruses, e.g. severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

• Darnell ME et al. (2004): Inactivation of the coronavirus that induces severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS-CoV. J Virol Methods. 2004 Oct 1;121(1):85–91, DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2004.06.006

In older studies on SARS-CoV viruses, it was determined that formalin and glutaraldehyde inactivated SARS-CoV in a temperature- and time-dependent manner. Formalin fixation performed at 37°C or room temperature, “significantly decreased the infectivity of the virus on day 1, while glutaraldehyde inactivated SARS-CoV after incubations of 1–2 days.

 

• Duan et al. (2003): Stability of SARS coronavirus in human specimens and environment and its sensitivity to heating and UV irradiation. Biomed Environ Sci. 2003 Sep;16(3):246–255.

The authors found that several coronaviruses were made non-infectious after the following exposure times and temperatures: 90 min at 56°C, 60 min at 67°C, and 30 min at 75°C. Paraffin infiltration in most histopathology laboratories uses a temperature of 60–65°C for 2 h or more. It is, therefore, appropriate to consider that the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue block would have a low risk of coronavirus infectivity.

Covid-19 tests:

• Sheridan C. et al.: Fast, portable tests come online to curb coronavirus pandemic. Nat Biotechnol. 2020 Mar 23, DOI: 10.1038/d41587-020-00010-2