Sample Shipment

Medical samples must be packaged, labelled and transported in accordance with the current regulations on dangerous goods. The transport regulations of the corresponding courier services must be observed. The primary containers (usually blood collection tubes) and the secondary packaging must be liquid-tight, sufficient absorption material must be contained between the primary container and the secondary packaging. Shipping material for category B samples (see below) can be requested from 9-12  on +49 40-42818453.

Please fill in the examination orders and send them together with the examination material to the Central Laboratory Diagnostics, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, 20359 Hamburg.

• Please fill in the name of the patient on each page of the examination order and staple the pages together.
• Information on the patient's symptoms and country of travel or origin will help to make a targeted diagnosis in the case of unclear clinical pictures.
• Please refer to the examination order for shipping conditions and requirements for the examination material, or contact the laboratory responsible by telephone.

Category A patient sample

Category A includes patient samples with suspected pathogens of life-threatening infections, including pathogens of viral haemorrhagic fevers (risk group 4 according to BioStoffV). They are assigned to UN number 2814, "Infectious substance, dangerous to humans", and must be packed in accordance with packing instruction P 620. They can only be transported under separate safety precautions.

Important notes

• The examination orders of such analyses are marked with *
• These samples must be announced in advance to the virologist on duty by telephone: +49 171 2127900

Category B patient sample

Packaging according to P 650: "Biological substance, category B".

Category B includes patient samples with suspected pathogens of less dangerous infectious diseases (risk groups 2 and 3 according to BioStoffV). They are classified under UN number 3373 "Biological substance, category B" and must be packed in accordance with packing instruction P 650.

Exempted medical samples are patient samples for which there is only a minimal probability that they contain pathogens. Declared accordingly, they may be transported in triple packaging based on packing instruction P 650. There must be no suspicion of the presence of infectious agents based on the clinical picture, history or other preliminary investigations. Examples: Seroprevalence determination, conditions after infection for retrospective antibody detection.