Suitability of new chlamydia transport medium for transport of herpes simplex virus

A new chlamydia transport medium (ChlamydiaPort; Scott Laboratories, Inc., Fiskeville, R.I.) was evaluated for its suitability as a transport medium for herpes simplex virus (HSV). Two laboratory HSV strains (McIntyre and 333) and two clinical isolates (AO218 and AO301) were suspended in ChlamydiaPort, ViraPort (Scott Laboratories), and cell culture medium and maintained at 2 and 22 degrees C. Samples were tested at various time intervals to determine surviving virus. The range of half-lives of the HSV strains held at 2 degrees C in ChlamydiaPort medium was from 3.5 to 10 days, while virus stability was greater in ViraPort and less in cell culture medium. These HSV strains held at 22 degrees C in ChlamydiaPort had half-lives from 1.5 to 6 days, which were significantly greater than the half-lives of the viruses held in either tissue culture medium or ViraPort. Clinical specimens were tested for virus by using the Selecticult-HSV (Scott Laboratories) system to determine the performance of the transport medium under field conditions. Clinical specimens maintained up to 5 days at ambient temperatures in ChlamydiaPort medium appeared suitable for diagnostic testing without detectable loss of positive specimens. In addition, there was a significant decrease in the average time required for diagnosis when compared with a standard transport system, Virocult (Microdiagnostics, Cleveland, Ohio). These results show that HSV infections can be successfully diagnosed in distant virology laboratories by shipping specimens in ChlamydiaPort transport medium at ambient temperatures.