Swish, gargle, spit: Behold the new, kid-friendly COVID-19 test

HALIFAX—We all inherently know it: Swish-gargle-spit is much better than a stick up the nose.

If you’re a kid, and you need to get tested for in Halifax, at least you’ll have that option now.

If you’re an adult … well, for the time being, it looks like you get the shaft.

The IWK Health Centre in Halifax, one of the country’s major pediatric hospitals, began Wednesday to roll out a pilot project in which the nasal swab test for COVID-19 is replaced with one called — in technical terms — the Gargle-Swish test.

The patient swishes five millilitres of saline in their mouth for five seconds, then tilts their head back and gargles for five more. They repeat that process two more times, then spit it all out into a cup.

Done. Thirty seconds all told, and no stick up the nose. No fuss, no mess — unless you lack an aptitude for gargling. The cup goes off to the lab, and the results come back in 72 hours.

The new test is reportedly 98 per cent sensitive for COVID-19, which puts it on par with the nasal swab test.

Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, the test is only available to children ages four to 18. Only two of these pilot projects exist — the first at the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, the second in Halifax at the IWK — so resources are limited and are being prioritized for children.

“We started this morning, and it’s been resoundingly positive, both from the staff and from the patients as well,” said Joanne Gallant, clinical leader of the primary assessment clinic at the IWK. “We had a patient who had previously had the nasal swab, and had come in for the gargle. And he left with a big smile on his face and said it was great.”

Gallant said research has shown that every health-care interaction a child has early on has an impact on their future health interactions.

In this case, Gallant believes, there will be shorter-term benefits, too. With schools back in session and health guidelines suggesting a coronavirus test if children display symptoms of fever or cold, the numbers of children who need to be tested has increased.

“We’re also hoping that it’s going to increase the rates at which people are willing to come in, because all of these (coronavirus) tests are based on self-reporting.

“So if somebody had the swish-and-gargle test, and it went very well — which is what we’re seeing — they were hoping that, you know, in a couple of months, if they have another cold, they wouldn’t hesitate in filling out that form and coming back for another test.”

For Sara Laffin, that seems plausible.

Laffin, a nurse at the IWK who administers some of the swish-and-gargle tests, also has two children of her own, a seven-year-old girl, Penny, and a five-year-old boy, Mickey.

She said although children are more resilient than adults think, there’s still a measure of apprehension about the nasal swab test.

“I think it’s quite vulnerable having another human putting a swab up your nose. It can be quite scary for kids and cause a lot of anxiety in some children just thinking about it. Not necessarily the procedure itself, but leading up to the procedure can be quite scary,” she said.

But she’s tried the new swish-and-gargle test on her own children, with positive results.

“They both thought it was fun and easy, were the two words they used to describe it, and, ‘It wasn’t that bad,’ was what Penny had said.”

Steve McKinley is a Halifax-based reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: