Beijing authorities decided last week to add anal swab sampling, or taking stool samples, in addition to throat swabs for some people. The news has sparked a firestorm among netizens over the past few days, with some giving up going back to Beijing for the Chinese New Year as a result. Some pharmacists believe that it may be the lack of sensitivity of domestic nucleic acid reagents that necessitates the additional anal sampling.
China’s new coronavirus disease outbreak, recently spread in Beijing and other northern regions. The Beijing health Commission said at a press conference last Wednesday (20) that nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, anal swabs and serum tests had been conducted on all teachers and students at the school where the asymptomatic infected boy was staying, with samples taken from 1,298 people and 5,192 samples collected. Three days later, CCTV news reported that all residents in the area of Beijing’s Daxing district where there were infected cases had to have their pharyngeal swabs, anal swabs and serum tested at the same Time. Experts said the study found that a portion of infected people had positive fecal or anal swabs for nucleic acid that lasted longer than the upper respiratory tract, and that anal swab sampling could improve detection rates to reduce missed diagnoses.
Currently, only Beijing has added anal swab testing for newly diagnosed cases in local areas, and medical sources in Shanghai disclosed to the station that they will not follow Beijing’s lead in increasing anal swab testing.
Foreign study says Chinese reagents are only 40 percent accurate
In response, Zhou Shunwu, a university graduate in Beijing, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Wednesday (27) that he found it odd that the authorities had made such a decision because the new coronavirus is mainly in the upper respiratory tract: “The new coronavirus is a respiratory tract infection definitely not a digestive tract infection, and there is no way for a respiratory tract virus to survive in the digestive tract. I also asked several doctors, they also think that the matter is really incredible, a respiratory virus, how can it be tested negative or positive through the anus.”
In late March last year, a shipment of nucleic acid testing reagents supplied by China to the West was alleged to be substandard. At the time, Philippine Undersecretary of Health Viehli said at a press conference that some of the Chinese-made reagents were only 40 percent accurate.
Zhou Shunwu said that there is a rumor going around: “After the mass production last year, the stock of swabs was so large that foreign countries did not import them again. Because the quality of Chinese products is too poor. In order to remove the inventory, the anal test was introduced. I heard there is such an argument.”
Some netizens : “Not very harmful, very insulting”
Chinese netizens are baffled by anal sampling. In response, some feel embarrassed and some feel insulted. Because why only China has this test. Some netizens said, “Not very harmful, very insulting,” and some said, “After reading the official propaganda map, has been put off the idea of going Home for New Year’s Eve, sickness and death is a small matter, the loss of morality is a big matter.”
A pharmacist in Beijing, Pang Xinhua said in an interview with the station, the general fecal virus content is larger, so it is easy to test: “New crown pneumonia patients have some diarrhea and other symptoms, to detect the virus from the patient’s excrement, because the anus is easier to detect the new crown virus. Strictly speaking, if you go from your oral mucosa and nostrils to detect the virus, the skin mucosa may be thinner and lead to the results do not work.”
Pang Xinhua said the other side may be part of the nucleic acid detection reagents are not qualified: “If you wipe with a cotton swab in the anus, the number of viruses will be a little more, and then test there may be (reagents) sensitivity will improve. Testing in such a way may be related to the low sensitivity of the testing reagents in China.”
Liang Lianchun, director of the infection department at Beijing Youan Hospital, told mainland media that increasing anal swab testing could improve the rate of confirming the detection of new crown infections to some extent, saying that there were many cases of patients with new crown pneumonia who tested positive on anal swab tests, indicating the possibility of fecal transmission of the virus.
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