Saliva samples for Covid-19 test at govt hospitals soon - minister

 

Deep throat saliva samples will soon be used by some government hospitals for Covid-19 tests, said Health Minister Adham Baba.

He said an evaluation by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) found deep throat saliva has a sensitivity of 96.67 percent and 100 percent specificity.

In addition, the sampling method is safe and non-invasive compared to sampling with the ‘nasopharyngeal’ and the ‘oropharyngeal’ swab through the nose and mouth, he said.

“The Health Ministry has received approval in principle from IMR to use the saliva sampling method at government hospitals first.

"Sampling of Covid-19 through saliva will also speed up and increase Covid-19 screenings," he said to reporters at his ministry in Putrajaya today.

Adham was receiving 2.7 million low dead-volume syringes worth RM891,000 from Etiqa Family Takaful Bhd.

He said the sampling method using saliva is "self-collected" and that this is expected to save on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).

"Patients will be asked to remove their own saliva into a specimen cup and the cup will then be sent to the laboratory for testing," he added.

He said the saliva sampling method is also suitable for the Covid-19 RT-PCR test.

"Currently, IMR is completing a study on the use of saliva samples for RTK antigen (RTK Ag) tests," he said, adding that sampling through the nose and mouth is still used to detect Covid-19.

He said the use of saliva samples for the Covid-19 test has been conducted in several countries and it has proven to be cheaper and one of the most consistent sample collection methods.

- Bernama