Goodbye, nasal swabs? Saliva tests can detect coronavirus infection, studies show
- Two new studies found that saliva tests were about as reliable as those that require a sample from the back of the nose
- In theory, anyone could administer a saliva-based test, so there may not be a need for a trip to a testing centre
If there’s one thing we can safely predict about the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that plenty of coronavirus tests lie in our future. Luckily, researchers have some good news.
Two new studies have found that tests that look for the virus in samples of saliva are about as reliable as tests that require a sample from the back of the nose.
That’s sure to be a welcome development to anyone who would rather avoid the discomfort of having a long, stiff swab inserted so far back into their nasal cavity that it feels like it’s tickling their brain.
But it’s not the only benefit. Pretty much anyone can administer a saliva-based test, so there’s no need for a trip to a testing centre. It also frees up the time of medical personnel and spares them potential exposure to the virus.
In one of the new studies, a team from Yale identified 70 hospital patients with Covid-19 whose infections had been confirmed with the traditional nasopharyngeal swabs. Each time a health care worker carried out additional nasal swab tests, the researchers asked the patients to give themselves a saliva test as well.
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The saliva tests did a better job of detecting the virus formally known as SARS-CoV-2, the researchers found. In the first five days after diagnosis, 81 per cent of the saliva tests came back positive, compared with 71 per cent of the nasopharyngeal tests. A similar gap remained through the 10th day after diagnosis.