Nasopharyngeal swabs are mainly used for nose and throat sampling of respiratory and enteroviruses such as influenza, swine flu, bird flu, hand, foot and mouth. The following precautions should be taken when using nasopharyngeal swabs.

1. Sampling objects should be those with fever ≥38℃ within 3 days of onset;

2. The sampling solution should be placed in a refrigerator (with an ice row) and brought to the sampling site;

3. The capacity of the sampling tube should be about 10ml, and it should not be too large, so as not to affect the post-processing of the specimen;

4. Plastic tubes should be used for sampling tubes to prevent accidents during transportation;

5. The rod of the nasopharyngeal swab is preferably lengthened, which is convenient for sampling;

6. The head of the nasopharyngeal swab should be made as small as possible to avoid discomfort to the patient's nose during sampling;

7. The liquid in the sampling tube should not be more than 4ml, so as not to affect the concentration of the sample;

8. When necessary, double nasopharyngeal swabs can be collected as parallel samples;

9. The collected specimens should be immediately placed in a 4°C refrigerator (if there is no refrigerator on site, they can be placed in a freezer immediately) and transported to the laboratory within 24 hours in a freezer (at the same time, a detailed sample registration form is attached). ). If it cannot be delivered within 24 hours, it must be stored below -70°C;

10. Tracheal extracts can be collected when there are cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.