Saliva tests

[CarlaH]

I see mention of saliva tests instead of PCR and am wondering why they aren't using them all the time.

People are saying how nasty it is for their kids to have things stuck down their throat or up their noses so I can't understand why with an alternative method available we are still doing this.

Does anybody have information as to why we can't all be tested just by spitting in a cup.

Not sure as to the why, tbh. They're available purchase privately at a considerable cost, but are not generally available to the mass public in Engand.

Other countries have gone down this route, we went down the lateral flow test route.

It is extremely annoying. I would much rather spit in a tube than poke chemical-smelling swabs up my nose and make my eyes water twice a week.

(Still, I understand China is now doing anal swabs on people, so it could be worse!).

If you want to pay for them, you can. Otherwise, for now, it’s the cheaper and more readily available PCR test.

I wonder why they are so much more expensive.

I too would rather avoid having something shoved up my nose or down my throat.

It would all so much more sense.

PCR tests aren’t fair on children - I’m sure there are tons of parents who are putting off or not attempting to test young children with symptoms because of this. Mine was fine for her first PCR then so traumatised after it that there’s no way I would be able to swab her again unless it was 100% necessary.

Lots of parents will likely now assume it’s a ‘cold’ rather than PCR test - a saliva test would encourage more testing

@Walkaround

(Still, I understand China is now doing anal swabs on people, so it could be worse!).

I'd much prefer that to the throat swab or even the nasal swab to be honest.

My son is 11 and I will never consent to a swab, he starts secondary school this year and I will have to make it clear that he can't have the test. If he thinks they will test him he will simply refuse to go to school.

I didn't know saliva tests were available I'm going to look into them now.

Sorry he will not consent to a swab, I will but he won't!

It would be great for classrooms full of kids. They all spit then their collective spit is tested and if +ve they all go for a PCR.

@LizzieMacQueen

It would be great for classrooms full of kids. They all spit then their collective spit is tested and if +ve they all go for a PCR.

Collective spittle. What a lovely though. I'm imagining a giant spitoon as they enter the classroom.

@LizzieMacQueen

It would be great for classrooms full of kids. They all spit then their collective spit is tested and if +ve they all go for a PCR.

DHs work is trialling something like this! He calls it "spit in a bucket" testing, but really everyone gets their own pot to spit in A sample is taken from each pot at the end of the day, mixed with other people's samples, and run through a pcr. If it's positive, the samples are split into 2, and some more spit from each pot tested - the negative half discarded and the positive half resampled and so on, so eventually you get the single sample or samples that are positive without testing everyone individually.

Pros are that it's cheaper than running them all through a PCR individually as you don't need to test a negative "batch" of samples. Cons are someone has to deal with an awful lot of spit which will take more time than the more, um, liquid samples produced via the swab, and you also need to produce quite a lot of spit in the first place.

What I don't understand, though, is if spit works in a PCR, why it can't be used routinely. So you spit in the vial of liquid you get with the swab, or put the swab in the vial after dabbing it in a blob of spit you produced earlier. May not be as good as a swab at picking up virus (they are very insistent you don't touch any other part of your mouth with the swab in the process, so a spit test couldn't be so sensitive!) but it has to be better than nothing?!

Sorry, that's a lot of times I've written "spit" there

I'm a healthcare student on placement and was given loads of LFT at the start to test twice weekly. Interestingly on the instructions they tell you to d a saliva test with the tests. I'll try and post a pic.