October 28, 2020

Saliva Is a Promising Alternative Specimen for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Children and Adults

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): testing

[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] Paired testing between nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and saliva samples from 300 patients (including both pediatric and adult patients) showed that the concordance of saliva and NPS samples was 91.0% and 94.7%, respectively. The positive percent agreement was 81.4% (79/97) and 89.7% (87/97), respectively. The authors suggest that saliva can be an appropriate alternative sample choice to NPS for detection of SARS-CoV-2. 

Yee et al. (Oct 27, 2020). Saliva Is a Promising Alternative Specimen for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Children and Adults. Pre-print downloaded Oct 28 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.25.20219055