Natural spring water gargle and direct RT-PCR for the diagnosis of COVID-19 (COVID-SPRING study).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Nasopharyngeal swab has long been considered the specimen of choice for the diagnosis of respiratory viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2 infection, but it suffers from several drawbacks: its discomfort limits screening acceptability, and it is vulnerable to shortages in both specialized materials and trained healthcare workers in the context of a pandemic.

Methods

We prospectively compared natural spring water gargle to combined oro-nasopharyngeal swab (ONPS) for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in paired clinical specimens (1005 ONPS and 1005 gargles) collected from 987 unique early symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals from the community.

Results

Using a direct RT-PCR method with the Allplex™ 2019-nCoV Assay (Seegene), the

SUBMITTER: Dumaresq J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8487097 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature