U.S. diplomats in China forced to undergo anal swabs to detect coronavirus

U.S. diplomats in China said they had been forced to undergo anal swabs to detect the coronavirus despite being in principle exempt from it.

According to American media Vice Yes Washington Post, State Department employees deployed to the Asian country have complained having had to undergo an anal test for covid-19 “by mistake”.

“The State Department never accepted this type of evidence and protested directly to the Foreign Office when we learned that some staff were subject to it,” a State Department official said Vice.

Washington called the procedure “outrageous” Yes He told staff to decline the test if asked to do so.

In an email to Reuters, a State Department official said he was “Committed to ensuring the safety of American diplomats and their families, while preserving their dignity.”

Asked about this during a press conference, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry nevertheless denied this information.

“To my knowledge … China has never asked US diplomatic personnel deployed in China to perform anal swab testing.”Zhao Lijian said at a daily press conference in Beijing.

An invasive test

The controversy is because the anal swab is much more invasive than the nasopharynx: To collect samples, the swab should be inserted three to five centimeters into the rectum and rotated several times. After completing the movement twice, the swab is withdrawn before being placed safely in a sample container. All the procedure takes about 10 seconds.

Some Chinese cities have used samples taken from the anus to detect possible COVID-19 infections amid regional epidemics ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. The practice has generated all kinds of comments and criticism, even among users of Chinese social networks like Weibo.

In Beijing, in particular, rectal smear diagnostic method was used during a recent spike in cases, and Its use has also been ordered to international travelers arriving in the Chinese capital, where they must also comply with a quarantine.

A foreign diplomat said to AFP What had refused to undergo this type of test after being quarantined at home on his return to China. According to him, those responsible for the examination did not insist.

Experts like Li Tongzeng, chief medical officer at You’an Hospital in Beijing, says the anal test method “can increase the detection rate of infected people” because traces of the virus remain in the anus longer than in the respiratory tract.

Stool tests may also be more effective at detecting infections in children and babies. as their waste has a higher viral load than adults, researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong said in an article published last year.

In any case, the usual detection methods are surely always the most used, because the anal test is “less practical”, according to Chinese officials quoted by the press.

(With information from Reuters, AFP)

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