2 Specimen collection, labelling, preservation and transport

Proper specimen collection, preservation, labelling and transport are vital to ensure:

• an adequate specimen in terms of quality and quantity
• the specimen’s bacterial flora remains stable until arrival at the laboratory
• that the laboratory performs the most appropriate tests for each case
• that the case’s data can be used for disease diagnosis/AMR surveillance.

As you will learn later, failure to follow proper procedures can compromise laboratory test results and undermine confidence in bacterial culture results in different ways.