Govt hospitals to use deep throat saliva samples in Covid-19 tests soon, says Adham Baba
Published on: Thursday, February 18, 2021
By: Bernama
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba says an evaluation by the Institute for Medical Research shows deep throat saliva has a sensitivity of 96.67 percent and 100-percent specificity. (Photo: Bernama)
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PUTRAJAYA: Deep throat saliva samples will soon be used by some government hospitals for COVID-19 tests, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba.
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He said that on an evaluation by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR), 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 (MOH) 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 increases COVID-19 screenings," he told reporters after receiving 2.7 million low dead-volume syringes, worth RM891,000, from Etiqa Family Takaful Berhad at his ministry here today.
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Dr Adham said the sampling method using saliva is self-collected and 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.
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He said the saliva sampling method is also suitable for the COVID 19 real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR' (RT-PCR) test.
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