Saliva: the future of mass screening

Could saliva be the future of mass screening? In his comment on the paper by Isao Yokota et al. we presented on September 29, Lorenzo Azzi highlights the potential merits of saliva: it can be easily and non-invasively self-collected by the subject, avoiding thus the employment of skilled staff and the risk of viral transmission during the procedure, it is more comfortable for the patient if compared with the nasopharyngeal swab, and for this reason it is more frequently repeatable with a good compliance.

Azzi L. Saliva is the Key Element for SARS-CoV-2 Mass Screening. Clin Infect Dis 2020, published 21 October. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1440

Yokota I, Shane PY, Okada K, et al. Mass screening of asymptomatic persons for SARS-CoV-2 using saliva. Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Sep 25:ciaa1388. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32976596. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1388

We should not forget, though, that mass screening might not be easy to implement. Look at this: Pettengill MA, McAdam AJ. Can We Test Our Way Out of the COVID-19 Pandemic? J Clin Microbiol 2020, published 21 October. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02225-20

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