coronavirus: anal swabs.
Anal testing is being used so far only on select groups, mainly high-risk cases and people in quarantine. Some people who have been subjected to anal testing include passengers arriving in Beijing and a group of more than 1,000 schoolchildren and teachers who were thought to have been exposed to the virus,
Forbes reported.
The use of anal swabs is limited because it’s invasive and inconvenient. If a stool sample cannot be obtained, 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.
Li Tongzeng, deputy director of the respiratory and infectious diseases department at Beijing Youan Hospital, said in an interview with
state media that anal swabs appear to be more accurate at detecting the coronavirus than nasal or throat testing.
The virus lives longer in excrement or the anus than in the respiratory tract, he said, meaning anal testing might have fewer false negatives.
