The Role of Saliva in Examining for SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19 (Corona Virus Infection Disease-19), an infectious disease (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2)virus which was first confirmed on December 2, Wuhan, China, in 2019 and very quickly world-wide. World Health Organization (WHO) declared it on March 11th, 2020,fever, cough, and breathing difficulties are all common symptoms. The gold standard for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection is the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR)by detecting viral RNA using nasopharyngeal swabs and other respiratory specimens. However, this process necessitates the use of specialist medical staff, centralized laboratory facilities, and a lengthy period of time for results to be obtained. Besides that, the possibility of virus transmission is not negligiblefor procedure's operator. Due to this reason, several investigations have shown that other bodily fluids, like as saliva, could be used to identify SARS-CoV-2. Saliva is used as a diagnostic sample has many advantages: it is easy to collect samples by the patient themselves with a fairly comfortable procedure, does not require health personnel with special expertise to manage it, and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to the operator. Currently, there are several alternative tests for SARS-CoV-2 which have simpler and more efficient procedures, such as antigen based rapid diagnostic tests, antibody based rapid diagnostics, and RT LAMP tests. This examination is suitable for screening and mass examination, but cannot be used as a primary diagnostic tool because the sensitivity and specificity are not as high as rRT-PCR.