ISO18184

Our Approach

At VRS, our ISO 18184:2019 experiments are third-party accredited (ISO/IEC 17025:2017, Perry Johnson Laboratory Accreditation Inc.); this means our testing is regularly audited and proficiency testing is completed twice annually.

During an ISO 18184:2019 test, a set weight of evenly-sized test and reference materials are placed into tubes. The textile materials can be woven or knitted fabrics, fibres, yarns, or other textile types. A known amount of virus is then added onto each material at several points, encouraging absorption into the fabric. The tubes are then sealed and incubated at room temperature for an agreed-upon time.

To recover infectious virus, the incubated materials are thoroughly washed with liquid media. We then quantify the amount of infectious virus in the recovered suspensions by adding each suspension to cultured cells and performing a TCID50 assay. If sufficiently less infectious virus is recovered from the test material than the reference material, the test material is deemed antiviral (assuming all criteria for a valid test are met).

Our ISO 18184:2019 tests include several controls crucial for test validity and understanding your results. The virus recovery control quantifies the starting amount of virus from a sample recovered immediately after virus addition to the reference material (time zero). The amount of infectious virus recovered from the reference immediately after inoculation and after the contact time must be sufficiently similar for the test to be valid. Additional controls (you can read more on our ISO 18184:2019 blog article) are included to ensure the materials are not cytotoxic to or interfere with the host cells used to quantify the virus.

If you work with fabrics or yarns, contact VRS today to learn how the ISO 18184:2019 test can be useful for you.