Clinical Materials:
Infectious Disease Reporting
Submitting clinical materials for a reportable disease to the Minnesota Department of Health.
On this page:
What to submit
Shipping methods
Clinical guide to services
What to submit:
If the disease that you are reporting requires submission of clinical materials, please submit isolates or, if an isolate is not available, submit material containing the infectious agent in the following order of preference:
- a patient specimen;
- nucleic acid; or
- other laboratory material.
Shipping methods:
- It is the responsibility of the submitting laboratory to determine the appropriate packaging and shipping for patient specimens and culture isolates.
- Regulations: Hazardous materials shipping
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration govern the transportation of hazardous materials by highway, rail, vessel, and air.
- Regulations: Hazardous materials shipping
- If you are using a courier, use regulatory compliant transport packaging and send to:
- Minnesota Department of Health
601 North Robert Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
- Minnesota Department of Health
- If courier transport is not available, the isolate may be sent by
U.S. mail. Use regulatory compliant transport packaging and send to:
- Minnesota Department of Health
601 Robert St. N
PO Box 64899
St. Paul, MN 55164-0899
- Minnesota Department of Health
- To request pre-paid transport labels (both mail and courier) and
packaging, call the MDH Public Health Laboratory Specimen Handling
Unit at 651-201-5200.
- If you need assistance with transport issues, call MDH Specimen Receiving at 651-201-4953
Clinical guide to services
- Clinical Laboratory
Clinical Guide to Services, forms for request of MDH laboratory supply materials and virology specimen submission. Searchable clinical guide to services is coming soon.
Please call the MDH Public Health Laboratory at 651-201-5200 for further
instructions.
