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Shipping Support for Public Health Laboratories

APHL provides support to public health laboratories to ship specimens for specific, funded activities. This page includes information on those activities and specific shipping information. 

Questions?

Contact the Infectious Diseases team: [email protected]

APHL Shipping Support

Getting Specimens from Here to There

APHL maintains a shipping account with FedEx to support the shipping costs for public health laboratories associated with specific infectious diseases testing. This account should only be used for approved services and can only be used by approved users. Listed below are the services for which the account has been made available and by clicking on the link you can access the most recent instructions for utilizing the APHL FedEx account for that purpose.  

The APHL FedEx shipping account may NOT be used for any shipping outside of the defined parameters. Any unauthorized usage will result in the charges being reversed and potential revocation of the user account. 

General Shipping Guidance

Tool / Work Aid
2021
Packaging and Shipping Evaluation Tool
Use this interactive toolkit to evaluate packaging and shipping of Category A & B Substances and their associated documentation. Download and open in Adobe Acrobat to utilize the forms’ interactive elements and complete the forms digitally.
Public Health Preparedness and Response, Specimen Handling
Tool / Work Aid
2021
Packing and Shipping Infectious Substances Training Requirements Job Aid
For those who package or ship potentially infectious specimens for transport. This guide helps determine training requirements based on job function(s).
Infectious Diseases, Quality Systems and Analytics, Specimen Handling
Guide / Guidance
2021
Packing and Shipping Guidance for Biological Substances, Category B Specimens
Guidance on how to pack, ship, label and document all Category B specimens according to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) Hazardous Material Regulations (HMR) 49 CFR § 100-185.
Infectious Diseases, Quality Systems and Analytics, Specimen Handling

Shipping Guidance by Type of Testing

AR Lab Network 

State, territory and large city public health laboratories that are supported by funding by the AR Lab Network will have access to the funded FedEx account. This account may be used for shipping and includes the shipping of isolates, samples and supplies between clinical laboratories, non-regional laboratories, regional laboratories and CDC. 

HIV NAT Reference Center

HCV NAT Reference Center

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Specimens

Public health laboratories may use the FedEx Shipping Account to submit specimens to the National TB Genotyping Service and CDC’s Molecular Detection of Drug Resistance Service. ​