Tokyo – Japanese scholars announced this week studies that changed the rules of the game that found that undeniable saliva tests for COVID-19 are as reliable as widely used swab tests, but more confusing and uncomfortable. he had no symptoms of coronavirus or saliva or the familiar nasal swab.
The effects have already shattered the traditional of mass detection in Japan.
“We now know that sensitivity and specificity are the same” for saliva and swab testing, research team Takanori Teshima at Hokkaido University told CBS News. Carriers of the virus, Teshima said strong evidence that simple, noninvasive saliva tests are as effective as non-unusual “PCR” tests “change the game. “
“We don’t have an explanation for why we keep taking swab samples,” Teshima said. “It’s expensive, requires fitness staff and it’s painful. “
Teshima presented the effects of studies on 1,924 asymptomatic people this week. This is one of the largest studies to date that directly compare saliva and nasal smear tests to verify their reliability. Subjects were asked to spit in a cup and undergo the nasal sampling procedure at local fitness clinics and Haneda Airport in Tokyo and Kansai International Airport in Osaka.
Unlike swabs, which require a medical corps of workers trained in protective devices to collect patterns and threaten an infection, giving a saliva pattern is no more confusing than entering a booth and drooling in a cup.
Double tests were performed using the popular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and the RT-LAMP procedure that detects the virus in saliva. The undeniable viral diagnostic tool has been used for years to check for MERS, SARS and Ebola.
The Hokkaido test concluded that saliva tests had an accuracy of approximately 90% to identify positive cases, without almost any false positives, a rate of functionality almost exactly equivalent to taking nasal samples with swab. Cases.
But while any of the strategies have proven to be very accurate, “saliva testing has significant logistical benefits over used nasopharyngeal swab testing,” Teshima said.
RT-LAMP machines used for saliva testing are compact, require no special education to function and give effects in just 30 minutes. Japanese regulators approved the use of saliva testing during the summer, helping long passenger queues at airport checkpoints.
Teshima said that mass detection of other asymptomatic people at giant sites such as airports will eventually move to a third method, the antigen test, which produces effects more quickly, but to compensate for the slightest accuracy of this method, he stated that individual effects limit the initial detection of the antigen (which is also fast and painless) can be retested as one of the most reliable methods.
Saliva detection was studied at Yale University, which studied its effectiveness in 500 NBA players and staff, and at the University of Illinois, which introduced an ambitious program to control each and every user on campus, twice a week (see the most sensible video on this page to be more informed).
Teshima claimed that the saliva analysis regimen developed in Japan, unlike those in the United States, does not load preservatives on saliva samples, which aims to compromise accuracy.
“That’s why our tests are very practical, simple and less expensive,” Teshima said. “Initially, we thought the approach had to be simple, which could be implemented in any small town, without specialized technicians. That’s our goal.
As a component of its plans for next year’s Olympics, the Japanese government is putting in position a formula to make detection as simple as leaving saliva samples at the local pharmacy.
Teshima said Japanese primary hospitals, adding that Hokkaido University, where he works, were already routinely evaluating all patients before cups with admission pins, which helped prevent coronavirus transmission to the hospital.
“It’s possible to run a saliva test,” he said.