Anal Probes / Swabs For Medical Purposes

[Mighty_Emperor]

Thais bend over backwards for rectal probe

Bangkok, October 17

Catering workers at a summit in Thailand are being forced to submit to rectal swabs - to determine if they are disease-free. But they are homouring such "western" ways.

Chefs and waiters at the 16 hotels hosting world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit have undergone the checks to ensure they are not infected with typhoid or other parasites.

On Friday an opposition MP slammed the tests, saying he had received a complaint from an executive at one of the hotels.

"It's over the top," Akapol Sorasuchart told The Nation newspaper.

But Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan defended the ministry's checks.

"Let's not overreact. This is necessary and in line with international practice to ensure that workers are free from digestive diseases," she said.

The workers themselves appear to have taken the measure in their stride.

A public-relations official from the Grand Hyatt Erawan, where the United States delegation is staying, said: "We have never had rectal swab tests before. This is the first time, but we won't complain because we know this is a western standard."

Sompasong Saetang, a cook at the media canteen, also shrugged off the tests.

"We know it is a security standard. It's good because we will know whether anything is wrong with our health," she said.

http://xaura-vip.tiscali.co.za/tiscali/news/news_story.jsp?content=107591

I am mystified at:

1. Why anal swabs?

2. Why is this a 'western standard'?

Emps

 

[Anonymous]

http://xaura-vip.tiscali.co.za/tiscali/news/news_story.jsp?content=107591

I am mystified at:

1. Why anal swabs?

2. Why is this a 'western standard'?

Emps

Tuberculosis bacilli can be found in the lower gut and in excrement - I know this because I once had to submit a, um, sample when a relative was diagnosed with TB and the whole family had to be tested for it.
I suppose typhoid, salamonella and some other diseases can be diagnosed the same way. But I've never heard of such testing being a 'standard' for workers, even those working with food.

 

[Pete Younger]

The workers themselves appear to have taken the measure in their stride.
You mean they don't even have to stand still for it?

 

[escargot]

You know what you can do with that.....!

20-odd years ago when I started a new nursing job I was given a little plastic tub and a wooden spatula along with a 'Stool Sample' form.

I didn't, erm, do, erm, anything with them, mainly because I was embarrassed that the tub was see-through and also because I wasn't told what the sample would be tested for.

Both these problems could have been easily overcome with a little foresight on my employers' part - an opaque tub and an explanation- but as they were not, I ducked the test and so will never know what pathogens were lurking in my gut.

Were I to be sent for such a test now it'd probably take a court order to make me do it. The contents of my bot are between me and my own bog seat.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Exactly - why anal swabs when a stool sample would surely suffice?

Emps

 

[Anonymous]

Exactly - why anal swabs when a stool sample would surely suffice?

Emps

Presumably because stool samples can be faked as easily as urine samples?

"Mr. Smith, would you care to tell us when you started eating whole mice?"

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Presumably because stool samples can be faked as easily as urine samples?

Good Lord - I remember the bit in "Withnail and I" and the urine sample faking and now one has to have some kind of stool substitution kit too!! I'd probably cut the large end of a toothpaste tube and then fill it up with 'clean' poo and then superglue it back together (or something).

And for the record I gave up eating whole mice for Lent and haven't started again.

Emps

 

[Timble2]

...Presumably because stool samples can be faked as easily as urine samples?...

I've heard that you can buy 'clean' urine samples for those tests at work, and in dehydrated form too - just add warm water.

...but faking stool samples.....yuk!:cross eye

Edit* Originally posted by Emperor

I'd probably cut the large end of a toothpaste tube and then fill it up with 'clean' poo and then superglue it back together (or something).

Alternatively, you could use on of those 'icing bags' that they use to put piped decoration on cakes. They come with a whole set of differently shaped nozzles.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Timble:

Alternatively, you could use on of those 'icing bags' that they use to put piped decoration on cakes. They come with a whole set of differently shaped nozzles.

Bingo!! thats the one - I'd hand over a stool sample with a nice star-shaped cross section (it should raise a few eyebrows - a bit like the square egg machine in the seventies)

Emps

 

[escargot]

 

[JamesWhitehead]

"It's over the top," Akapol Sorasuchart told The Nation newspaper.

No, good try, Mr Akapol. Let's try that again. If it's not over the top
it must be . . . ?

 

[Melf]

what nothing from capt. buttock then?