Influence of Practicable Virus Inactivation Procedures on Tests for Frequently Measured Analytes in Plasma

Clinical specimens from patients carrying highly infectious agents such as corona, Lassa, Ebola, or Marburg viruses may present a biohazard to laboratory workers. Although specialized medical microbiology laboratories amplify and analyze such viruses under the required biosafety measures, few general clinical laboratories have the equipment to perform their analyses without putting their personnel at risk. The recent spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has heightened concern about personnel safety. Although the WHO (1) and the CDC(2) recommend that blood samples from patients in whom SARS is suspected should be analyzed under biosafety level II conditions, most high-throughput analyzers in the clinical chemistry laboratory use open tubes and therefore do not meet the biosafety level II standards. In such cases, the CDC recommends administrative measures and/or additional personal protective equipment to reduce risk. Some manufacturers announced that their analyzers should not be used for samples from patients in whom SARS is suspected, citing possible aerosol production during analysis. Hence, laboratory directors and biosafety officers are in the dilemma of how to offer urgent diagnostic and surveillance tests to clinicians and at the same time protect their coworkers from potential biohazards.