Saliva is Comparable to Nasopharyngeal Swabs for Molecular Detection of SARS-CoV-2
Cody Callahan, Sarah Ditelberg, Sanjucta Dutta, Nancy Littlehale, Annie Cheng, Kristin Kupczewski, Danielle McVay, Stefan Riedel, James E. Kirby, Ramy Arnaout
Abstract
values," which only mean something in the context of a specific assay and testing platform. Here, we compared saliva versus NP swabs in a real-world setting without restriction and report all results in natural units-the amount of virus being shed-showing that saliva is essentially just as good as NP swabs.
Topics & Concepts
SalivaConcordanceMedicineViral loadCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)VirologyImmunologyInternal medicineVirusInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseSARS-CoV-2 detection and testingBiosensors and Analytical DetectionCOVID-19 diagnosis using AI