If you thought getting a swab jammed up your nose to test for the presence of COVID was uncomfortable, there’s a new method to test for the virus that will make you rethink getting your brain tickled.
China, where the virus was first detected over a year ago, has adopted anal swabs as a new method to test for the virus. With this new procedure, a saline-soaked cotton swab about 1-2 inches long is inserted into the anus, with the sample tested for active traces of the virus. If you’re wondering, it is as invasive and awkward as you would think, as this video posted on TMZ shows.
If you thought getting a swab jammed up your nose to test for the presence of COVID was uncomfortable, there’s a new method to test for the virus that will make you rethink getting your brain tickled. China, where the virus was first detected over a year ago, has adopted anal swabs as a new method to test for the virus. With this new procedure, a saline-soaked cotton swab about 1-2 inches long is inserted into the anus, with the sample tested for active traces of the virus. If you’re wondering, it is as invasive and awkward as you would think, as this video posted on TMZ shows.
According to Li Tongzeng, deputy director of the respiratory and infectious diseases department at Beijing Youan Hospital stated that anal swabs appear to be more accurate at detecting the coronavirus than nasal or throat testing. He noted that since the virus lives longer in excrement or the anus than in the respiratory tract, he believes anal testing might have fewer false negatives. The anal swabs are being used in addition to the more widespread use of nasal or throat testing and, while there’s no nationwide policy on use of the technique, some residents in China’s northern regions – where more than 1,700 cases have emerged – have been subjected to the swabs with little warning.
According to Forbes, the tests are only being ordered for high-risk cases and for those living in quarantine centers. On January 25, passengers on a flight from Changchun to Beijing were told to disembark the plane after officials discovered that someone from an area deemed as high risk for virus transmission was on board. The passengers were then brought to a hotel where health workers took nose and anal swabs. This testing was also done on a group of 1,000 school teachers and students who were believed to be exposed to the virus.
Of course, these new tests aren’t without their critics. Yang Zhanqiu, a pathology expert at Wuhan University, China’s Global Times that nose and throat swabs are still the most efficient tests for Covid-19. He said, "There have been cases concerning the coronavirus testing positive in a patient's excrement, but no evidence has suggested it had been transmitted through one's digestive system."
Jiang Qingwu, a professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at Shanghai’s Fudan University said, “I don’t understand why Beijing added anal swabs. It’s not like poking the throat. You need a certain place and the risk of such transmission routes is lower.” He added, “Maybe they want to find remnants? It’s true that the virus can be detected there.”
There have been no announcements made as of yet by the CDC and FDA as to whether or not these anal swab tests will be brought to the US. Makes that nasal swab sound pretty great now, doesn’t it?
