Saliva tests were offered in a school in Eysines, in Gironde.

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Philippe LOPEZ / AFP

  • The first saliva tests in schools have started in Gironde at a school in Eysines.

  • Children appreciate this less invasive test than the nasopharyngeal swab and parents agree more easily.

  • The goal is to carry out 16,000 tests per week at the Bordeaux Academy level from mid-March.

A simple spit rather than a deep intrusion into the nostril, the saliva test is much better accepted by children.

"It hurts less than with the test in the nose", confirms Aya, 7, in CM2 in Eysines, in Gironde, where some 150 students experimented this Thursday with the first saliva screening tests for Covid-19.

In this school near Bordeaux, of which nearly 75% of the 203 students volunteered via a parental certificate, each class marched, in turn, for this new method of screening reserved primarily for children in nursery and primary schools. .

"With the saliva test, the acceptability of the parents is much more important because the test is not invasive", explained on site to the press Anne Bisagni-Faure, rector of the academic region of New Aquitaine.

A result in 24 hours

"The objective is to break the chain of transmission by making more detections," she said.

Until now, only 30% of students obtained permission from their parents for an antigen test by nasopharyngeal swab in Gironde, for a positivity rate of 0.07% according to the rectorate.

These new tests, carried out by the Exalab laboratory, require three to four minutes per student to collect approximately 1 milliliter of saliva in a plastic bottle.

The vials are then isolated in plastic envelopes, then sent to the laboratory where the results are known "within a maximum of 24 hours," says Erwan Le Naour, medical biologist, gloves, FFP2 mask and white coat on the back.

"Go get more saliva."

When you have a maximum, you spit until you fill the bottom of the bottle, ”explains the doctor to Felix, in CM2 class.

“I was a little scared at the start because the nose test was horrible, unpleasant.

There, there is less pain, ”says the student just after his test.

In the five departments of the former Aquitaine, nearly 2,500 saliva tests will be carried out in two days on fifteen schools selected "for their proximity to the laboratory" in charge of screening.

The objective is to carry out 16,000 tests per week from mid-March at the Bordeaux Academy, where two classes are currently closed.

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  • Aquitaine

  • Screening

  • Covid 19

  • Health

  • Bordeaux

  • epidemic