China News Service, May 12 According to a report by the Japanese Kyodo News Agency on the 12th, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare plans to approve the saliva as a sample to check whether it is infected with the new coronavirus PCR test within five months at the earliest.
On May 4th local time, a store in Tokyo, Japan, conducted a temperature test on customers entering the store.
According to relevant government sources, in the case of using saliva, doctors wipe the tongue with a cotton swab to sample, or the testee spit saliva into the container and take it to the medical institution.
According to reports, compared with the current mainstream method of collecting mucus in the deep nasal cavity with a cotton swab, it is safer and easier to collect test samples, or it will increase the number of tests. The sampling manual produced by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases will be changed soon.
According to the report, about 10 people who were confirmed to be positive after performing PCR tests in the original method after late April in Hokkaido University, Professor Toshima Takashima performed PCR tests using saliva as a sample, and the positive rate reached more than 90% .
Toshima said: "The new coronavirus is characterized by being more present in saliva than influenza. Many people who have complained of having a taste dysfunction are estimated to be due to this reason, and the use of saliva testing is effective." Toshima emphasized that it is different from the past It ’s just a method of collecting test samples. “The collection of saliva is very simple.”
The United States also reported that saliva virus detection is more sensitive than sampling from the nasal cavity, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency license for the test kit using saliva on the 8th.