Potential Implication of Saliva-Based Molecular Diagnostic in SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) is a new type of virus with positive single-stranded RNA virus that derived from the genus Coronaviridae causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). On 11 March, 2020 WHO declared Covid-19 as pandemic due to the first outbreak emerged December 2019 in Wuhan, China. It’s been almost a year the world lives with this pandemic covid-19, the global cases confirmed is 103 million worldwide. The massive covid-19 testing has proven to control pandemic and stop the spread of Covid-19.Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is gold standard for molecular diagnostic testing Covid-19 it can be obtained from nasopharyngeal swab or oropharyngeal swab. However RT-PCR sampling from nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal swab is very challenging due to invasive methods for patients and high risk exposure for health care. Therefore another method diagnostic approach is indeed. Here we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of salivary sampling compared to those of the nasopharynx and oropharynx based on published journals. Several studies showed RNA viral load in saliva test is comparable with sputum and saliva-based diagnostic test potentially promising as molecular diagnostic testing in Covid-19 due to the accuracy, non-invasive method, and cost-effective, nonetheless more evidence for saliva test in Covid-19 is needed.