The use of saliva tests to fill the need for diagnosing COVID-19 has its pros and cons, experts told Healio Primary Care.
“There is a shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs and, thus, a great desire to establish an alternative sampling method that does not rely on swabs,” Carey-Ann D. Burnham, PhD, D(ABMM), FIDSA, F(AAM), a professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in an interview. “Nasopharyngeal swabs cause patient discomfort, whereas saliva is noninvasive.”
She also noted that saliva test samples can be obtained
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