Saliva Testing Could Possibly Soon Become a Better Alternative Method in Predicting Covid-19

This is why I love to research. We get to learn new things, find solutions or better options to problems at hand all the time. Currently, the nasopharyngeal (NP) swab test is the standard testing method for the Covid-19 virus. Most people do not like the NP swab test because it is very uncomfortable and invasive. So you can understand the excitement when we learned of a possibility of another alternative method.

Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) researchers developed a SalivaDirect diagnostic test and have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [1]. As for now, only a certified laboratory and trained technicians can conduct this test [1].

The saliva test came about when the National Basketball Association (NBA) partnered with Yale researchers to test asymptomatic people within the NBA [1]. Due to its success rate, laboratories around the United States became interested in this. This was what led Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, and her team to go further in testing the severity of the Covid-19 virus in hospitalized patients [1, 2].

From their study released on January 10, results showed that a person's saliva with high levels of SARS-Cov-2 could be a predictor of who will be more likely to develop severe disease, be hospitalized, or die from Covid-19 [2]. It is important to note here that these results have not yet been peer-reviewed. Without withstanding, this result is extremely significant because this can eventually guide doctors on who gets to be treated with medicines as soon as possible.

According to Dr. Akiko Iwasaki and her team saliva could be a better predictor because cilia which are hair-like projections in the respiratory tract regularly move mucus up to the throat where it mixes with saliva or moves during a cough [2]. She went on to explain that with NP swabs we can only look as far as the nasal passages. If the virus is found in saliva, it means that it is more likely to have infiltrated the lungs which are where Covid-19 causes the most damage [2].

More studies still need to be carried out to confirm these results. If other researchers can confirm these findings, then it is a win-win situation for us all. Saliva testing is quick, safe, accurate, cheaper, non-invasive, and easier to use than NP tests [1, 2]. For now, it is not widely available for use because more studies still need to be carried out by other researchers. While we wait for more studies to be done, there is hope and this looks very promising of a better alternative.

References

1. Katella, K. (2021). Saliva Test May Predict Severity of COVID-19. Retrieved 18 February 2021, from https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/saliva-test-covid-19-severity

2. Service, R. (2021). Saliva could hold clues to how sick you will get from COVID-19. Retrieved 18 February 2021, from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/saliva-could-hold-clues-how-sick-you-will-get-covid-19