The medical world has witnessed drastic changes as regards the pandemic. The humanity has watched unusual events unfolding and even more, science has been put to test like never before in terms of if humans can really rely on it and its efficiency. Just a year into the pandemic and China has come up with an anal swab test for the corona virus.
While they are not trying to eliminate the use of anal swabs, Chinese scientists are looking for much efficient and easy way of testing especially groups that are at high risk. They recently used the anal swab test to test 1000 school going children, teachers and passengers arriving in Beijing.
The technique however have a few shortcomings. One of them is the fact that it is sometimes invasive. If a stool sample cannot be obtained for various reasons, the technique becomes changes its course. A 1.9 inches long cotton swab that has been soaked in saline solution is inserted in order to find active forms of the virus. Chinese scientists are however saying that despite it being invasive sometimes, it gives more accurate results compared to the throat and nasal swabs.
“We propose anal swabs as the potentially optimal specimen for SARS-CoV-2 detection for evaluation of hospital discharge of covid-19 patients.”
Not all scientists however are supporting the idea of anal swabs being used. One professor with reservations said that he believes throat swabs are the most efficient since the virus is spread through the respiratory system. Others have claimed that the process is embarrassing to the patient and that most people would not go for it.
