Self-collected saliva as good as deep nasal swabs for diagnosing COVID-19: Study

In a new development in conducting Coronavirus tests to detect virus in any individual, a new study conducted by a nprofit laboratory and University of Utah has found out that self-collected saliva is just as effective as a deep nasal swab for diagsing COVID-19.  study was published in journal of 'Clinical Microbiology'. 

study was conducted by Associated Regional and University Pathologists, Inc. (ARUP Laboratories), a Utah-based nprofit laboratory located in Salt Lake City. 

Researchers also found that specimens self-collected from front of se are less effective than deep nasal swabs for virus detection. Ar research including one from Yale School of Public Health has suggested similar findings. 

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USFDA approves saliva-based test

US health watchdog has authorised emergency use of new and expensive saliva-based laboratory diagstic test for COVID-19 that could be a game-changer in diagsis of infection as it will enable rapid testing amongst more people easily.

Stephen Hahn, Food and Drugs ministration Commissioner, said new saliva test would increase efficiency and avoid short of crucial test components like rents.

“Providing this of flexibility for processing saliva samples to test for COVID-19 infection is groundbreaking in terms of efficiency and avoiding shorts of crucial test components like rents,” he said in a statement.

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 has been a major stumbling block in fight against pandemic, with long delays and shorts of testing. Some experts have said that up to 4 million tests are needed per day and Salivirect provides one pathway toward that goal, researchers said.

COVID-19 pandemic has infected 23,057,288 people across world with death toll surpassing 800,000 mark.

India has ramped up its testing capacity and has conducted over all 3,59,02,137 tests across country as on August 23. testing capacity has increased up to 9 lakh tests a day.

(Im credit: PTI)

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