I know this year has been an uneasy year for everyone. Because of the big outbreak of the epidemic, it brought a lot of inconvenience to our life and work. Fortunately, the epidemic is now under control in China. Is the pharyngeal swab, which has been the most used in the outbreak so far, still needed?

First of all, what is the purpose of a pharyngeal swab?

A pharyngeal swab is an important test to check for pharyngeal diseases such as pharyngeal diphtheria, acute suppurative tonsillitis, and acute pharyngitis. It is performed by pressing the patient's tongue with a tongue depressor and using a clean swab to remove a bit of throat secretion for examination under a microscope. These secretions are used for drug sensitivity tests to detect harmful bacteria colonizing the pharynx, which can also provide clinical help for the next step of diagnosis and medication guidance. There is some discomfort associated with pharyngeal swabbing, and patients with mild gag reflexes can tolerate pharyngeal swabbing and therefore require it. Also, what pharyngeal swabs do during an outbreak is just to remove secretions to check for novel coronaviruses.

And it is winter. The climate is still dry. This season causes pharyngitis, sore throat from swallowing food, pharyngitis and bronchitis causing loss of voice, nasopharyngitis and a series of pharyngitis symptoms, pharyngitis with many pathogenic microorganisms, and the main virus is bacteria. The examination of pharyngeal swabs can quickly check whether the infecting pathogens caused are bacteria or viruses, how is this examination carried out?

Let's see together

How to use a pharyngeal swab.

1 . The collector is assisted by a tongue depressor, the subject opens his mouth and makes an "ah" sound, the palatal lobe is exposed and lifts the posterior pharyngeal wall, the swab crosses the tongue root and reaches the narrow pharyngeal lesion, and quickly wipes away both palatal arches and pharyngeal and tonsillar secretions.

2 . Put the swab into the virus delivery medium with the auxiliary tube cover folded wiper and put it completely into the tube.

3 . Tighten the tube lid, mark it well and put it into a plastic bag to seal it.

4 . Send the specimen for examination in a timely manner.