Saliva or Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens for Detection of SARS-CoV-2

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 383; no. 13; pp. 1283 - 1286
• Main Authors: Wyllie, Anne L, Fournier, John, Casanovas-Massana, Arnau, Campbell, Melissa, Tokuyama, Maria, Vijayakumar, Pavithra, Warren, Joshua L, Geng, Bertie, Muenker, M. Catherine, Moore, Adam J, Vogels, Chantal B.F, Petrone, Mary E, Ott, Isabel M, Lu, Peiwen, Venkataraman, Arvind, Lu-Culligan, Alice, Klein, Jonathan, Earnest, Rebecca, Simonov, Michael, Datta, Rupak, Handoko, Ryan, Naushad, Nida, Sewanan, Lorenzo R, Valdez, Jordan, White, Elizabeth B, Lapidus, Sarah, Kalinich, Chaney C, Jiang, Xiaodong, Kim, Daniel J, Kudo, Eriko, Linehan, Melissa, Mao, Tianyang, Moriyama, Miyu, Oh, Ji E, Park, Annsea, Silva, Julio, Song, Eric, Takahashi, Takehiro, Taura, Manabu, Weizman, Orr-El, Wong, Patrick, Yang, Yexin, Bermejo, Santos, Odio, Camila D, Omer, Saad B, Dela Cruz, Charles S, Farhadian, Shelli, Martinello, Richard A, Iwasaki, Akiko, Grubaugh, Nathan D, Ko, Albert I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 24.09.2020
• Subjects: Asymptomatic; Betacoronavirus - isolation & purification; Clinical Laboratory Techniques; Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis; Coronaviruses; Correspondence; COVID-19; COVID-19 Testing; Humans; Laboratories; Nasopharynx - virology; Nosocomial infections; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - diagnosis; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Saliva; Saliva - virology; SARS-CoV-2; Sensitivity and Specificity; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Specimen Handling; Standard deviation; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2016359

In this letter, the investigators report that saliva specimens and nasopharyngeal swab specimens had similar sensitivity in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in both symptomatic and asymptomatic persons.