Jokes aside, the policy is real – at least in China.
The communist superpower is launching an expanded COVID-19 testing program to include anal swabs for high-risk patients, calling it a more accurate method than nasal and throat testing, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The myriad of puns aside, China’s health experts believe that the science is sound and that the method should be applied to some of its at-risk citizens.
The tests, however, are not as easy to administer or pleasant to withstand – for obvious reasons – compared to more conventional testing methods. Therefore, they are being performed mainly on high-risk and quarantined patients, reported The Guardian.
Young students in Beijing were tested for the virus using a variety of methods, including nasal, throat and anal swabs, according to a report earlier this month in The Global Times.
“I believe that anal smears for COVID-19 PCR are being advanced as a test because viral loads in the rectum may be greater than in the nasopharynx,” said Dr. David Cennimo, an infectious disease specialist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, in an email. “In theory, the test should be more sensitive because the virus would be easier to detect with a higher copy number.”
However, don’t expect to see anal smears of coronavirus in New Jersey anytime soon, he added.
“But the virus is also found in stool / rectal samples after elimination from the nasopharynx,” he said. “This can lead to overdiagnosis of people who have recovered and only have persistent positive CRP [results]. Regardless, I don’t see this as a strategy that would lead to testing in the real world of a large number of people, as I would expect a significant number to refuse. If that happens, we could worsen the epidemic because people will actively avoid testing and continue to spread the virus without being diagnosed. “
Health officials in China recently took the anal smear test more seriously, citing studies that found that the virus survives more in the lower digestive tract and excrement than in the respiratory tract, the Global Times reported.
China has implemented the new testing protocols and has pointed out some patients with COVID-19 still recovering in the hospital who have had a negative nose and throat test, but positive with anal swabs, according to the Washington Post.
In August, Chinese researchers published a report on the anal smear tests, proposing that they are “the potentially ideal sample for detecting SARS-CoV-2 for discharge evaluation of patients with COVID-19”.
It is not clear whether something like this could be implemented in the United States. According to the Washington Post, even Chinese residents believe the new protocols would make patients very uncomfortable. The report cited a survey conducted on a Chinese social media platform that revealed that 80% of respondents “could not accept” this method.
Draconian measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 are nothing new in China.
It closed Wuhan – a city of 11 million people – for months. Millions have been assembled for mandatory testing, including rapid overnight tests, with people lined up in the streets in the dark, reports the Washington Post. And health officials sometimes close apartment buildings to prevent people from leaving.
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Spencer Kent can be contacted at [email protected].