KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — The Institute of Medical Research (IMR) is studying the use of saliva (early morning) and ‘deep throat saliva’ to be used as samples to detect Covid-19.
IMR Virology Unit head Dr T. Ravindran said this was the latest discovery to replace samples currently taken from swabs on the nose and throat.
“We have evaluated them and they are as good as the samples we use now, which are swabs from the nose and throat,” he said in an engagement session on the Covid-19 pandemic with the Health director-general series 2/201 that was held virtually yesterday.
This method is seen as important as it is “self-collected” and can save on the use of personal protection equipment (PPE).
The samples, thus far, have also been found to be suitable for real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
“We will also study whether the samples are suitable to be used for Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag), we need a little more time to complete it,” he said.
Meanwhile, at the same session, National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK) director Dr Hani Mat Hussin said a total of 6,336,804 Covid-19 tests had been carried out in laboratories nationwide since Jan 24 last year.
“Of the total, 4,477,839 tests were done using Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag) while another 1,858,965 were carried out using RTK-Ag,” Dr Hani said.
— Bernama
