Andalucia Rules out Using Anal Tests for Covid

THE Junta de Andalucia has ruled out using anal tests to detect Covid like some Spanish regions.

Elias Bendodo, Minister of the Presidency, has confirmed Andalucia has no plans to begin using anal swabs to diagnose new Covid cases as in Galicia, northern Spain.
Use of the rectal swabs began last week in Galicia now in Spain when the normal PCR test cannot be given.  According to the Galician Ministry of Health, “They are performed on those patients who, due to being in a very serious condition, intubated, cannot undergo PCR.”
The tests, which first found fame after being rolled out in China, are thought by some experts to be more reliable since traces of Covid may remain in faeces longer than in the respiratory tract.
According to Li Tongzeng from Beijing’s You’an Hospital, the tests may help to detect more cases among asymptomatic patients.
He said: “We found that some asymptomatic patients tend to recover quickly. It’s possible that there will be no trace of the virus in their throat after three to five days
“But the virus lasts longer from the samples taken from the patient’s digestive tract and excrement, compared to the ones taken from the respiratory tract.
“If we conduct anal swabs for nucleic acid testing, it would increase the detection rates of patients and lower the chance of a missed diagnosis.
News that China had rolled out mass anal testing met with humour on the country’s social media platform Weibo, with one user commenting, “I have had two anal swabs, every time I did one I had to do a throat swab afterwards. I was so scared that the nurse would forget to use a new swab.”

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