Consent, sampling, results: the steps of the saliva test in schools

From Monday, a screening campaign for the coronavirus begins in a number of schools using saliva tests.

Lionel Barrand, president of the Union of Young Medical Biologists (SJBM), explains on Europe 1 the concrete steps of this new campaign.

INTERVIEW

The pupils of zone A (academies of Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon and, Poitiers) return to class on Monday morning, and some of them will have to do with a novelty: tests salivary to detect the coronavirus.

The National Ministry of Education wants 200,000 of these new kinds of screenings, less invasive than the nasal swab sample, to be carried out per week.

The objective will not be fulfilled immediately, because it is first necessary to put in place a very precise protocol, of which Lionel Barrand, the president of the Union of young medical biologists (SJBM), specifies the stages on Monday on Europe 1.

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Choice of facilities and parental consent

Not all schools will be affected.

"What has been decided is that it is the rectorate and National Education which decide which establishments to test," explains Lionel Barrand.

"The material is then sent to the school in partnership with local laboratories and it is the saliva self-samples that are taken from the students."

Not all students, however, but only those whose parents have given their consent.

"This is also the National Education which must obtain the consent of parents for minor students", continues the biologist.

This explains why the vaccination campaign will take a little time to find its cruising speed.

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Sampling under the supervision of an adult

Students who wish can therefore perform this saliva test, which will not consist of a simple spit.

Hence the necessary presence of an adult to supervise the sample.

"It is not sputum sputum, it is really saliva that you need to have. So there are precise methods of collection and that is precisely what we will have to check with a supervisor. ", specifies Lionel Barrand.

The adult will have another responsibility: "identity-vigilance".

It will therefore be necessary "to verify that it is indeed the identity of the good pupil. It would not be a question of making the wrong tubes and pupil", warns the biologist.

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Fast… and reliable results

Once the sample has been taken, the laboratory takes over.

"The laboratories are organizing with the school and the samples will be repatriated as quickly as possible so that they are then processed and analyzed in order to have the results as quickly as possible within 24 hours", explains Lionel Barrand. .

Because the goal is to prevent a student who would test positive to go to class the day after the sample.

"For the vast majority of cases, we will be able to give the results very, very, very quickly", assures the biologist.

Fast results therefore, but also a minimum reliable.

"The saliva test is a little less efficient than the nasopharyngeal test, but we can not fall below a sensitivity threshold either," reassures Lionel Barrand.

"Because if it's a one in two chance, there is no point. And here, what has been shown is that with PCR tests at present, which are in During validation and for some already validated on saliva, the performances are acceptable. Less good than PCR, but acceptable, especially in view of the acceptability of the test which is much better in saliva than in nasopharyngeal. "