Anal Swabs Are Not the Best Way to Test for COVID-19, U.S. Experts Say

• Researchers in China say people with COVID-19 have active gut viral infections.
• They say using anal swabs can therefore be effective in detecting the disease.
• However, U.S. experts say nasal and throat swabs are better because COVID-19 is an upper respiratory disease.

Experts in the United States are questioning the use of anal swabs in China to detect COVID-19.

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) say they’ve found for the first time that people with COVID-19 have active and prolonged gut viral infection.

They say the infections occur even in the absence of gastrointestinal symptoms and even after the respiratory infection has cleared.

That means anal swab testing, which requires inserting a swab up to 2 inches into the rectum and rotating several times, could detect COVID-19 cases that the standard nose and throat swabs would miss, experts say.

Or does it?

While the findings impact China’s clinical management of COVID-19 patients, U.S. experts caution against taking the study — or anal swab testing for the novel coronavirus — seriously.