What is the Most Effective Nasal Swab for Detecting COVID-19?
From the very onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, fast and accurate testing has been a cornerstone in our strategy to stop the virus’s spread. Even though vaccines for the virus are now readily available in most parts of the world, COVID-19 testing still plays an essential role in our ability to treat coronavirus patients. According to Dr. John Berberian, though, the nasal swabs we use to test for COVID-19 can have a serious impact on how effective our testing procedures actually are.
Compared to many virus strains, the virus responsible for causing COVID-19 is able to burry itself much deeper in a patient’s nasal passages. This means that traditional oropharyngeal swabs often aren’t able to reach far enough into a patient’s nasal passages to actually detect the virus, leading to dangerous false negatives. Dr. John Berberian, though, says that there is a simple fix to this issue – NPS swabs.
NPS swabs are designed to reach much further into the nasal passages than oropharyngeal swabs, allowing these swabs to collect samples that will lead to much more reliable results when the samples are tested. For this reason, Dr. John Berberian argues that NPS swabs should be the only nasal swabs used for COVID-19 testing.
Of course, one problem with collecting samples from deep within a patient’s nasal cavity is the fact that the process can be quite uncomfortable for the patient who is being tested. NPS swabs, though, feature a smooth and lubricated design that allows them to glide along the nasal tissue without causing any painful tears or abrasions.
In spite of the fact that coronavirus vaccines are finally allowing people to protect themselves against the virus and allowing the world to slowly return to normalcy, COVID-19 testing is sure to remain a vital part of healthcare services for the foreseeable future. When testing for a virus as deadly as COVID-19, the potential for false negatives is a serious problem. To help significantly reduce the likelihood that a COVID-19 test produces a false negative, Dr. John Berberian says that NPS swabs designed to reach deeper into the nasal passages where the virus likes to hide should become the standard for coronavirus testing. Given their ability to more accurately detect the virus combined with a design meant to make the testing experience as pain-free as possible for the patients being tested, there’s really no doubt that NPS swabs are the best swabs available today for detecting COVD-19.