Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, Herston, Qld, Australia.
Trop Med Int Health. 2011 Jun;16(6):766-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011.02757.x. Epub 2011 Mar 21.
Surveillance programs and research for acute respiratory infections in remote Aboriginal communities are complicated by difficulties in the storage and transport of frozen samples to urban laboratories for testing. This study assessed the sensitivity of a simple method for transporting respiratory samples from a remote setting for viral PCR compared with frozen specimens.
We sampled every individual who presented to a remote Aboriginal community clinic in a non-epidemic respiratory season. Two anterior nasal swabs were collected from each participant. The left nare specimen was mailed to the laboratory via routine postal services. The right nare specimen was transported frozen. Testing for 16 viruses was undertaken using real-time multiplex PCR.
A total of 140 participants were enrolled who contributed 150 study visits. Respiratory illnesses accounted for 10% of the reasons for presentation. Sixty-one viruses were identified in 50 (33.3%) presentations for 40 (28.6%) individuals; bocavirus and rhinovirus were the most common viruses identified (14.0% and 12.6% of episodes respectively). The sensitivity for any virus detected in mailed specimens was 67.2% (95%CI 55.4, 78.9) compared to 65.6% (95%CI 53.7, 77.5) for frozen specimens.
The mailing of unfrozen nasal specimens from remote communities does not compromise the viability of the specimen for viral studies.
偏远地区原住民社区的急性呼吸道感染监测项目和研究因冷冻样本储存和运输至城市实验室进行检测而变得复杂。本研究评估了一种简单的方法从偏远地区运输呼吸道样本进行病毒 PCR 检测的敏感性，与冷冻标本相比。
我们对一个非流行呼吸道季节中出现在偏远原住民社区诊所的每个人进行采样。每位参与者采集两个前鼻拭子。左侧鼻腔样本通过常规邮政服务邮寄至实验室。右侧鼻腔样本进行冷冻运输。使用实时多重 PCR 检测 16 种病毒。
共有 140 名参与者入组，共 150 次就诊。呼吸道疾病占就诊原因的 10%。在 50 次（40 人，28.6%）就诊中有 61 种病毒被检出，40 人（28.6%）检出病毒；博卡病毒和鼻病毒是最常见的病毒（分别占 14.0%和 12.6%的发作）。邮寄标本中检测到的任何病毒的敏感性为 67.2%（95%CI 55.4, 78.9），与冷冻标本的 65.6%（95%CI 53.7, 77.5）相当。
从偏远社区邮寄未冷冻的鼻标本不会影响标本进行病毒研究的可行性。
