II. LABORATORY SERVICES 

 A. Policy 



The laboratories of CDC serve as a national reference facility and accept speci- 

 mens only from state public health laboratories and Federal facilities. Specimens which 

 cannot be adequately examined locally should be sent to the appropriate state labora- 

 tory where they will either be processed or. at the discretion of the state laboratory 

 director, forwarded to CDC Acceptance of diagnostic specimens by CDC directly from 

 private physicians or institutions and local health departments is authorized only under 

 special circumstances including prior agreement between CDC and the state laboratory 

 director. 



^^ ^■^i> 



c/yt/g/^Y^ 



Roslyn Q. Robinson, Ph.D. 

 Director, Bureau of Laboratories 



B. Reference Material 



1 . Cultures 



Cultures of Legionnaires' disease bacteria (LDB) can be obtained by laboratories 

 for control purposes. However, before authorizing the distribution of a culture, CDC 

 requires that the laboratory director submit a written request which affirms that the 

 organism wUl be studied only under suitable containment conditions; that the cultures 

 will be handled by qualified microbiologists exercising appropriate care; and that no 

 subcultures of this organism will be distributed to other laboratories. These precautions 

 are necessary to insure the safety of all concerned until the mode of spread, habitat, 

 infectivity, and other characteristics of this organism are more clearly defined. The 

 letter of request should be sent to: 



Center for Disease Control 

 Attention: Albert Balows, Ph.D. 



Director, Bacteriology Division 



Bureau of Laboratories 

 Atlanta, Georgia 30333 

 Telephone (404)3 29-3711 



When the requirements above are met, an LDB culture will be mailed. Open and 

 inspect the culture upon arrival. Most of our reference cultures are lyophilized and 

 sealed under vacuum, but some are currently mailed on agar slants. Stock culture 

 storage on agar media is discussed in the chapter by Feeley et al., a blood-freeze 

 method is detailed in the Appendix, and lyophilized cultures are discussed in the 

 section above on Laboratory Safety. 



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