These two years to hear the most can make people shiver, but we are not unfamiliar with a name -- nucleic acid testing. Many partners say they can't forget the nasal swab that is called "straight to the sky".
Some of them said they had a nucleic acid test and would never forget the feeling of "soreness" for the rest of their lives ......
The most common way of sampling nucleic acid is known to be the throat swab and nasal swab, so why add the anal swab?
The first time anal swabs became known to the public was in an outbreak prevention and control conference held on January 20, 2021, when a 9-year-old boy with an asymptomatic infection was added to the Daxing district of Beijing, followed by a series of nucleic acid tests such as nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, anal swabs and serological tests for all teachers and students at the school where the case was located.
Why add an anal swab?
"In mass nucleic acid screening, anal swab or stool testing of key populations serves two purposes: first, to reduce missed diagnoses; and second, to facilitate tracing the source of infection."
Li Dong, deputy chief physician of the Department of Infection Integration at Beijing Youan Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, has said that with the deepening knowledge of the new coronavirus, clinical findings show that some infected patients have respiratory symptoms such as fever, dry cough, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, and reduced or lost sense of smell and taste, in addition to gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea; some confirmed cases even have only gastrointestinal symptoms, and if only respiratory nucleic acid If only respiratory nucleic acid testing is done, the diagnosis may be missed, and the addition of anal swabs can improve the detection rate of new crowns.
It was found that most of the infected patients tested positive for fecal or anal nucleic acid, and more than 70% of these patients tested positive for fecal nucleic acid after having a negative respiratory nucleic acid test. Most of these patients will have a negative respiratory nucleic acid test within 10-14 days from the onset of symptoms, and in severe cases the respiratory nucleic acid test will be negative in about 20 days, but in most patients the positive anal swab nucleic acid test will last for more than 20 days, and in some cases more than 30 days. For infected patients with negative respiratory nucleic acid tests, checking serum antibodies or anal swabs can help trace the source of infection.
After the news of anal swab testing in China, some places in Spain also started to adopt this type of testing. Previously, the Spanish news network ABC gave a detailed description of the advantages of anal swab testing, stating that, unlike other types of tests, it takes less time and is more accurate.
Who needs an anal swab?
Li Dong has said that there are three key groups of people:
① close contacts of confirmed cases;
② people entering the country;
③ people with fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, especially those with an epidemiological history and whose doctors suspect possible infection with the new coronavirus, will request an anal swab nucleic acid test.
Because of the lack of convenience of anal swab sampling and the low acceptance of it by many people, the use of anal swab sampling is only a "targeted screening" for some people, not all of whom need to use it, much less to implement it nationwide. Nasopharyngeal swab testing is still the most common form of testing today.
