If you don’t like the thought of your nose and throat being poked with a cotton swab to test for COVID-19, the Philippine Red Cross recently launched a less invasive procedure via saliva specimen. China, however, is taking an even more invasive approach: via your bowels. Chinese authorities have begun taking anal swabs from residents of Beijing who are considered at high risk of contracting coronavirus.
Why anal swab?
A senior doctor at Beijing’s You’an Hospital in an interview with a local broadcaster said anal swabs “can increase the detection rate of infected people” as traces of the virus linger longer in the anus than in the respiratory tract.
The Chinese government ramped up its testing efforts after small localized outbreaks occurred in multiple cities over the last few weeks, with northern China sealed off from the rest of the country.
Throat and nose swabs, however, remain the primary method employed in China, owing to anal swab’s inconvenience. It doesn’t help either that residents feel humiliated during the ordeal.
In case you’re curious and want a mental picture of the procedure: imagine a cotton-tipped swab inserted into the rectum about one to two inches deep.
Throat and nose swabs still the standard
Other medical experts in China, however, still stand by the accuracy of nasopharyngeal swab tests. “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,” Yang Zhanqiu, a pathology expert at Wuhan University, told China’s Global Times.
As early as last year, Chinese researchers have been looking into the efficacy of anal swab tests versus throat and nose swabs. In a study published in the Future Microbiology journal last year, the Weihai Key Laboratory of Medical Microbiology and Immunology found that “intestinal infection was observed in the later stages of infection, indicating that the clearance time of SARS-CoV-2 in the digestive tract was later than that in the respiratory tract.” So basically, other testing methods will still have to be employed.
As one Chinese resident shares on Weibo, after an anal swab, they had to undergo a throat swab afterward, all the while praying the nurse would remember to use a new swab.