Page 52 - SARS-COV-2-laboratory-viral-outbreak-perspective-investigation-by-ICR-NIH-MY

Does IMR or other hospital laboratories do heat

inactivation of specimens prior to processing?

How is it done?

Dr. Ravi: To ensure less exposure, we use heat inactivation. For example, for Ebola, the
temperature heating up recommended is at 65°C. For SARS-CoV-2 specimens, we use 65°C
to ensure it would not affect the quality of testing.

We conducted initial testing and did a comparison. Using the same samples, one with heat
inactivation while one without heat inactivation, we compare Ct values and make sure it is
identical. The reason why we conduct comparison is to make sure that the initial stages of
processing samples are being inactivated, so when it comes out from the subsequent
extraction, we can opt for surgical masks as PPE. This is because at one point in time, we
also had problems with PPE supply, hence we only use PPE during processing samples, but
when the sample goes to the PCR, surgical masks are sufficient.
We also did risk assessments, and we have done the virus isolation from both the samples
with and without heat inactivation. The viral culture from the heat inactivated sample did not
grow. We also did PCR to ensure that inactivation does not damage the virus and the pick-up
rate. It is identical, so no worries.