Controversy between China and Japan over rectal swabs

PHONE.-Tokyo urged Beijing to stop having anal swab tests for COVID-19 from Japanese citizens, due to the fact that the procedure causes psychological paina government spokesperson said on Monday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the government has not received a response on whether Beijing will change the test procedure, so Japan will continue to ask China to change the how it performs the tests.

“Some Japanese have informed our embassy in China that they have undergone anal sampling tests, which can cause great psychological pain,” Kato said at a press conference.

It is not known how many Japanese citizens have received such tests for the coronavirus, he added.

Some Chinese cities are using samples taken from the anus to screen for potential Covid-19 infections, as China is stepping up testing to make sure no potential coronavirus carriers are missed.

China’s Foreign Ministry denied last month that U.S. diplomats in the country were forced to undergo anal swab tests for Covid-19, following media reports that some had complained.

Procedure

China tested the small-group anal harvesting test procedure last year, and the results have been published in research journals. A group of Chinese researchers published a study in the journal Future microbiology in August, reporting that for some recovering coronavirus patients, anal swab specimens tested positive after testing negative via a throat swab.

Interestingly, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 was positive in the anal smear of two patients and negative in the throat smear and sputum samples, ”they wrote. “We are offering anal swabs as a potentially optimal sample for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 for the evaluation of hospital discharge of patients with Covid-19.”

As to how the test is performed, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention released instructions last March. He said that A stool sample should be taken from patients, and if this is not possible, make an anal swab by inserting a cotton stick 3 to 5 cm into the rectum.

At the end of last month, the Global Times newspaper noted that the procedure was controversial, with some doctors saying nasal and throat swabs were more effective because the coronavirus is a respiratory infection.

Reuters Agency

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