{"id":216476,"date":"2025-06-24T02:05:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T07:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/simple-nasal-swab-test-could-cut-costly-virus-screenings-in-high-risk-settings"},"modified":"2025-06-24T02:05:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T07:05:54","slug":"simple-nasal-swab-test-could-cut-costly-virus-screenings-in-high-risk-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/simple-nasal-swab-test-could-cut-costly-virus-screenings-in-high-risk-settings","title":{"rendered":"Simple nasal swab test could cut costly virus screenings in high-risk settings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/simple-nasal-swab-test-could-cut-costly-virus-screenings-in-high-risk-settings.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic yielded important advances in testing for respiratory viruses, but it also exposed important unmet needs in screening to prevent the spread of infections in high-risk settings.<\/p>\n<p>While PCR (<a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/polymerase+chain+reaction\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">polymerase chain reaction<\/a>) tests are the gold standard for detecting viral infections, they remain a challenge for <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/screening\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">screening<\/a> large numbers of people in places vulnerable to outbreaks\u2014such as health care centers and nursing homes\u2014due to <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/high+costs\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">high costs<\/a> and the fact that different tests are required for each virus.<\/p>\n<p>A new Yale study, however, finds that an alternate strategy\u2014using a nasal swab to screen for an antiviral protein produced by the body as a defense against infection\u2014can be an effective method for ruling out respiratory infections, limiting PCR testing only to those most likely to be infected, at a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The COVID-19 pandemic yielded important advances in testing for respiratory viruses, but it also exposed important unmet needs in screening to prevent the spread of infections in high-risk settings. While PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are the gold standard for detecting viral infections, they remain a challenge for screening large numbers of people in places [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}