PCR swab tests to detect respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19, could be replaced by an analysis of used tissues from patients.
- Respiratory viruses could be detected by analyzing used tissues.
- Eventually, this discovery could replace PCR swab testing.
- Patients could mail in their tissues for analysis.
This is a study that could relieve many of us: Professor Vincent Thibault, head of the virology department at the Rennes University Hospital, has succeeded in showing that it is possible to detect respiratory viruses on used handkerchiefs. This could therefore, in the long term, replace the PCR tests carried out by swabs.
Tissue analysis can detect respiratory viruses including Covid-19
For now, the first results of the study he conducted, published in the scientific journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, are conclusive. Indeed, it would be possible to detect respiratory viruses, including that of Covid-19, on used handkerchiefs.
To achieve this result, Professor Vincent Thibault collected the used tissues of 40 children aged 19 months to four years from the CHU crèche, and from pupils aged three to four years from a primary school. Secondly, he also analyzed the used handkerchiefs of people with Covid-19.
Send your handkerchief by mail rather than doing a PCR test
The results were conclusive: in children, respiratory viruses were detected and, for patients with Covid-19, “all the handkerchiefs of these people made it possible to detect the virus and in two thirds of the cases, more clearly than a PCR test”, explains Professor Vincent Thibault to 20 minutes.
In the future, Prof. Vincent Thibault wishes to conduct larger clinical trials. “It is necessary to optimize the technique of harvesting and analyzing handkerchiefs to make it industrial, he continues. The advantage of the handkerchief is also that you avoid exposing health professionals to the virus because you only have to blow your nose at home and send your handkerchief by mail for analysis.”
