A reliable laboratory report as an aid in the diagnosis of disease depends upon the care and thought used in the collection, handling, and transport of specimens. Too often physicians and other medical or public health personnel are only generally familiar with the problems and procedures involved in obtaining and submitting material for laboratory examination. The objective of this manual is to present procedures which, in the opinion of the staff of the National Communicable Disease Center—who authored the various sections—have been found to be practical and productive. Other methods may be equally satisfactory, however, and may, at times, be substituted for those described. In any case, whenever laboratory examinations are to be carried out in local or State laboratories, methods acceptable to these laboratories should be used. Earlier ed. has title: Collection, handling, and shipment of diagnostic specimens.

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection