What is a virus sampling tube?

A virus sampling tube is a container used to collect human samples (such as nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, etc.) and preserve virus samples.

I. Main components

It usually consists of a tube body, a cap, and preservation fluid.

1. Tube body: Generally made of polypropylene and other materials, it has a certain degree of hardness and sealing property to prevent sample leakage.
2. Cap: Closely fits the tube body to ensure that the sampling tube is in a sealed state during transportation and storage.
3. Preservation fluid:
   • The main function is to maintain the activity of the virus and prevent the virus from degrading rapidly after sampling. There are various types of preservation fluids, and common ones are inactivated and non-inactivated types.
   • Inactivated preservation fluid can quickly inactivate the virus, making the virus lose its infectivity. At the same time, it ensures the stability of the viral nucleic acid, which is convenient for subsequent nucleic acid detection.
   • Non-inactivated preservation fluid can maintain the activity of the virus and is suitable for culturing the virus and further research

II. Usage method

When performing virus sampling, a specific sampling swab is used to collect human samples, and then the swab is placed in the virus sampling tube. The swab stick is broken to leave the swab head in the preservation fluid. Finally, the cap is covered to complete the sampling.

III. Application scenarios

It is widely used in medical and health institutions, disease prevention and control centers, inspection and quarantine institutions and other places for the detection and monitoring of various viruses such as the novel coronavirus and influenza virus. It plays an important role in large-scale nucleic acid testing, epidemic prevention and control, and disease diagnosis.