Virocult®, one of Medical Wire's best known products, is now available for users in the United States.

Virocult® is a virus transport swab suitable for respiratory, skin, genital, ocular and enteric specimens, and is widely used with both traditional cell culture methods, and the more recent molecular techniques.

Virocult® is easy, safe and convenient in use. Each kit consists of a rayon bud swab, and a tube of liquid virus transport medium. The liquid is held in place within a saturated foam pad. There are no separate vials of medium and no swab sticks to break. The product is stored at ambient temperatures with no need for expensive refrigeration. The medium contains antibiotics that prevent the growth of any bacteria or fungi within the specimen (these could interfere with valuable cell cultures or other tests.)

Virocult is suitable for sampling from most body sites, especially epithelial surfaces, such as respiratory or genital areas, or skin lesions. Most of the major viral pathogens have been reported as being recovered such as Herpes Simplex Types 1 and 2, Varicella-Zoster virus, Influenza A and B, mumps, adenovirus, rhinovirus, and various enteroviruses. More recently Virocult has been used in studies about metapneumoviruses.

Virocult® is fully M40-A compliant. CLSI's M40-A Quality Control of Microbiological Transport Systems is often referred to for studies of bacteriology swabs, but there is also an important section on Virus Culture Transport Devices. The standard requires recovery to be tested for holding periods of up to 4 days. Virocult® has been tested against the specified viruses, not only at the recommended titre, but also at lower titres, and was found in all cases to exceed the requirements, both at ambient temperature and at fridge temperatures.

Virocult® is cited by many national and international organisations as a sentinel device to be used for the monitoring of epidemic influenza, including H5N1.


For further information visit our website at www.mwe-usa.com or www.mwe.co.uk.