PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hua, Nadia
AU  - Corsten, Martin
AU  - Bello, Alexander
AU  - Bhatt, Maala
AU  - Milwid, Rachael
AU  - Champredon, David
AU  - Turgeon, Patricia
AU  - Zemek, Roger
AU  - Dawson, Lauren
AU  - Mitsakakis, Nicholas
AU  - Webster, Richard
AU  - Caulley, Lisa
AU  - Angel, Jonathan B.
AU  - Bastien, Nathalie
AU  - Poliquin, Guillaume
AU  - Johnson-Obaseki, Stephanie
TI  - Salivary testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the pediatric population: a diagnostic accuracy study
AID  - 10.9778/cmajo.20210279
DP  - 2022 Oct 01
TA  - CMAJ Open
PG  - E981--E987
VI  - 10
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/10/4/E981.short
4100  - http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/10/4/E981.full
SO  - CMAJ2022 Oct 01; 10
AB  - Background: Accurate and timely testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the pediatric population is crucial to control the COVID-19 pandemic; saliva testing has been proposed as a less invasive alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs. We sought to compare the detection of SARS-CoV-2 using saliva versus nasopharyngeal swab in the pediatric population, and to determine the optimum time of testing for SARS-CoV-2 using saliva.Methods: We conducted a longitudinal diagnostic study in Ottawa, Canada, from Jan. 19 to Mar. 26, 2021. Children aged 3–17 years were eligible if they exhibited symptoms of COVID-19, had been identified as a high-risk or close contact to someone confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2 or had travelled outside Canada in the previous 14 days. Participants provided both nasopharyngeal swab and saliva samples. Saliva was collected using a self-collection kit (DNA Genotek, OM-505) or a sponge-based kit (DNA Genotek, ORE-100) if they could not provide a saliva sample into a tube.Results: Among 1580 paired nasopharyngeal and saliva tests, 60 paired samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2. Forty-four (73.3%) were concordant-positive results and 16 (26.6%) were discordant, among which 8 were positive only on nasopharyngeal swab and 8 were positive only on saliva testing. The sensitivity of saliva was 84.6% (95% confidence interval 71.9%–93.1%).Interpretation: Salivary testing for SARS-CoV-2 in the pediatric population is less invasive and shows similar detection of SARS-CoV-2 to nasopharyngeal swabs. It may therefore provide a feasible alternative for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children.