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. 2020 Sep;31(6):e653-e655.
doi: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000006724.

Saliva as a Potential Diagnostic Specimen for COVID-19 Testing

Pandurangan Harikrishnan  1
Affiliations

Saliva as a Potential Diagnostic Specimen for COVID-19 Testing

Pandurangan Harikrishnan. J Craniofac Surg. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

The current outbreak of the highly contagious, animal origin SARS-CoV-2 virus causes the disease COVID-19. The disease is globally pandemic and as per World Health Organization (WHO) has spread to 235 countries. There is global lockdown for containment of the virus transmission. Testing of symptomatic patients, healthcare workers and suspected individuals and mass screening is vital. WHO recommends nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swab for the quantitative assessment of SARS-CoV-2 RNA level through real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). The virus is shown to be consistently present in saliva and rRTPCR of saliva specimens and have advantages over NP and OP swabs such as self-collection of saliva, avoidance of healthcare workers for specimen collection, cost-effectiveness, etc. This article explores the current literature and suggests saliva as an emerging potential diagnostic specimen for COVID-19 testing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
(A) Sagittal section of pharynx, (B) nasopharyngeal swab and (C) oropharyngeal swab locations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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