Laboratories

HIV-1 viral load
The laboratories have to use a PCR based method that has a lower quantification limit of 50 copies/ml or below.

External Quality control
All laboratories involved in the SHCS have to be accredited.

Repositorium

 

Retrieval of blood samples
Individual samples needed for patient care can be used without permission from the Scientific Board. The retrieval of these samples nevertheless has to be announced to the data centre.


The samples have to be shipped and treated as infectious material.

As of November 2016, the SHCS repositorium contains 131’007 samples of viable cells and 228’152 samples of plasma from different timepoints corresponding to more than 1 million tubes.