Pre-print review of saliva (vs. nasopharyngeal swab) for detection of SARS-CoV-2 by PCR in symptomatic patients.

10 studies reviewed (all w/ modest n numbers) with saliva being positive in 31-92% of patients. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.09.20096354v1.article-metrics">https://www.medrxiv.org/content/1...

There are a few notable papers relating to saliva/oral collections that weren& #39;t in this review, so here& #39;s a thread:(please chime in if you& #39;re aware of others!)

First from @JClinMicro, Williams et al
Saliva 1:1 in aimes; 84% positive compared to NP swabs http://jcm.asm.org/lookup/doi/10.1128/JCM.00776-20">https://jcm.asm.org/lookup/do...

Non-peer reviewed pre-print from Kojima et al., study done in California.

Self-collected oral fluid and nasal swabs were ~sensitive as NP swabs. Caveat: patients needed to be instructed in collection - effectiveness dropped w/o on-site instruction https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.11.20062372">https://doi.org/10.1101/2...

Another pre-print, Pasomsub, study done in Thailand directly comparing saliva and NP swabs/throat swabs. 21 pts pos by any method, 19/21 detected by NP/OP swab, 18/21 by saliva. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.17.20070045">https://doi.org/10.1101/2...

I know for a fact that other studies comparing saliva to NP swabs (other collection types) are underway and will hopefully be published/pre-printed soon.

Please add to this thread if there are others.