Taking the Survey

Participants

The following people should complete the survey if their laboratory, biobank, or facility tests, extracts, handles, or stores biological samples from humans, experimentally infected animals, sewage, or wastewater:

• Investigators
• Biosafety officers
• Directors

When completing the survey, facilities should coordinate with laboratory staff who work with the material on a regular basis.

Completing a single survey vs. multiple surveys

The decision regarding the scope of your survey response and who it includes is dependent on your role in your facility/institution. You should only submit a department-, campus-, or institution-level survey if you are comfortable with your level of awareness of the inventory at that level.

Some facilities may have a biosafety officer or other institutional representative with a broad and comprehensive awareness of the facility’s inventory complete the survey for all labs. Others may ask individual principal investigators to complete the survey independently.

Regardless of approach, it is critical that the person completing the survey is aware of the sample/specimen inventory and history of the materials (i.e., date and place of collection). Facilities have the option of providing the NAC with a list of PIs with email addresses. We will use the list to issue individual survey links from our survey software. This method allows you to know who has completed the survey. We can monitor the status of each unique survey invitation.

Completing multiple surveys

If your facility opts to have each principal investigator take the survey, as a Biosafety Officer or other appropriate institution-level representative, you may request a list of surveys received from your facility.

People without authority to represent their facility

If you receive a survey link from U.S. NAC, but don't have the authority to represent your entire facility, you should still take the survey. However, you should limit the scope of your responses (Module E) to your laboratory only. If others in your facility are working with or storing biological or environmental materials, you may work with your biosafety officer or other institutional representative to coordinate a unified response. Please notify the NAC at poliocontainment@cdc.gov if you choose this option.

Retaking the survey after December 2018

The current survey launched in December 2018 and is a follow-up to the 2015 survey. It focuses on respiratory samples and biological or environmental samples that have the potential to contain poliovirus. The 2015 survey focused on known infectious material.

Your response to the current survey provides the U.S. NAC with an updated and current record. Module F of the survey contains a question about participation in the 2015 survey. Indicate ‘Yes’, where appropriate.

Survey content

We ask for the location (facility information) of the stored materials for two reasons:

1. To understand the scope of the survey response (e.g., a single laboratory versus an entire department)
2. To identify laboratories who may be reporting the same materials within a facility

Confidentiality

The information you provide is confidential. We are required to report national-level data to the U.S. National Certification Committee and World Health Organization (WHO). However, that reporting is done in aggregate.

WHO will be notified if your facility destroys, transfers, or retains materials that are subject to containment and registers as a poliovirus-essential facility (PEF). Survey responses may be provided to an institution’s biosafety officer or other appropriate institution representative upon request.

Time commitment

If your facility does not have any poliovirus materials, the survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. A fully prepared response should take less than 30 minutes to enter on the website.

The time needed to complete the survey depends on your knowledge of the material inventory at your facility. We recommend reviewing the survey questions and preparing your responses before beginning the online survey to reduce the input time.

Stopping, saving, and resuming the survey

Should you need to stop and then resume the survey later, clicking this option will save your answers. The system will generate a unique code that will return you to the saved survey session. You will receive an email with instructions for returning to your survey.

Please write down the return code when prompted. You will not receive the actual code in the email. If you lose the return code, email poliocontainment@cdc.gov.

Poliovirus Containment Statement of Responsibility

The statement of responsibility (SOR) document is submitted on behalf of a facility or institution. The document is signed by an individual with appropriate representative authority. The SOR acknowledges existing facility infectious PV or potentially infectious (PIM) inventory.

It is a commitment to handle these materials in accordance with WHO guidance. It is an agreement to notify the NAC if new materials are identified or acquired. The agreement requires facilities to indicate how PV containment awareness will be maintained among investigators.

The SOR represents the entire institution, including all principal investigators, researchers, staff, and anyone handling material containing or potentially containing PV. More information about the SOR, including a fillable form and guidance, can be requested from the NAC at poliocontainment@cdc.gov.

Sharing the survey

We are very interested in identifying other laboratories with infectious poliovirus and/or potentially infectious material. However, the survey link you received is specific to you and should not be shared.

If you would like to share the survey with others, you may direct them to the NAC website. You may also ask them to contact the NAC at poliocontainment@cdc.gov for assistance.