Resin Straws: A System to Safely Store Nasopharyngeal Specimens Collected During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ivory Coast

Background: Packaging in 0.5ml cryotubes and 0.3ml High Security straws was used to store more nasopharyngeal samples from Covid-19 pandemic surveillance in Ivory Coast. Previous studies have reported that there would not be, under experimental conditions, a significant difference in the survival rate values (per freeze-thaw cycle) of samples between cryotubes and High Security straws. However, storage in resin straws or High Security straws leads to a slight increase in the survival of microorganisms compared to cryotubes (Thammavongs et al., 2004). Methods: Aliquoting is use like method to put nasopharyngeal specimens in cryotubes 0.5ml and in high security straws 0.3ml. Results: from April 2020 to December 2021, out of a total of 1,092,901 nasopharyngeal samples received at Pasteur Institute of Ivory Coast, 18.97 samples were placed in High Security Straws 0.3ml versus 9,441 in cryotubes 0.5ml. The results indicate that there are more nasopharyngeal samples put in the 0.3ml High Security Straws than in the 0.5ml cryotubes. Conclusion: Two of the conditions that could justify the safe cryopreservation of microorganisms contained in samples collected during a pandemic are the following: a secure closure by hermetic welding and a gain in terms of space for high-security straws compared to cryotubes.