translated from Spanish: Infectology Society considers it “not recommended” to adopt saliva samples for Covid-19 diagnosis

The Chilean Society of Infectology referred to the Ministry of Health’s decision to promote saliva sampling as an alternative to nasopharynse swab, and called the authority’s decision “not recommended”.
Through a statement, Sochinf said that some studies show promising results for diagnosis using saliva samples, but that “these studies mostly correspond to a case report with a limited number of samples, and we consider that, for now, they do not allow to generalize the results and justify recommending and promoting the collection of such samples”.
“We consider it not recommended that at a critical time of the pandemic it is requested to implement and standardize new sampling procedures in clinical laboratories at the national level, without taking into account the external validity of such research and in the knowledge that the conditions given at the usual clinical level differ significantly from the controlled parameters that are generated within the framework of a research study” , the agency pointed out, through a statement.
Sochinf added that only the application of the method in the event of a shortfall in inputs for sampling in the health network would be justifiable, and stated that “we see with concern that the focus on driving this methodological change is only focused on increasing the number of examinations to be processed without further considering the quality of these samples and the accuracy of the results”.
“We regret and are surprised that in this and other decisions related to the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, the Institute of Public Health, which for many years has been the national reference laboratory for the study and surveillance of infectious agents, with
members who are recognized by WHO as experts in the diagnosis of respiratory viruses, do not participate with any representative in the advisory committee of the Ministry of Health, actively contributing to the delivery of technical laboratory guidelines and coordination of the Covid-19 diagnostic network,” Sochinf said.

Original source in Spanish