3D Printed Nasopharyngeal Swabs with Wrapped Rayon Fibers Developed and validated by SCREEN (San Diego Covid19 Research Enterprise Network) v1

The global pandemic due to SARS-CoV2 virus, also known as COVID-19, has drastically increased the need for nasopharyngeal-swab-based testing resulting in shortages of commercially available nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. One solution to overcome the national deficit of swabs is for medical device manufacturers and hospitals to generate NP swabs. Numerous entities are attempting to manufacture a direct from 3D printing NP swab but presented here is a validated two-part swab manufacturing protocol utilizing 3D printing and manual intervention (wrapping of nylon fibers). We recommend material extrusion or powder bed fusion technologies utilizing materials that can be sterilized using high level heat decontamination. Through the application of 3D printing and manual fabrication, we present an NP swab that can be created in a controlled environment. Coupled with CDC published viral transport media, the following swab can be used for COVID-19 testing or for testing for other respiratory viruses (eg, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus). The CDC viral transport medium has only four reagents which are readily available.