Effect of Throat Washings on Detection of 2019 Novel Coronavirus

Wen-Liang Guo; Qian Jiang; Feng Ye; Shao-Qiang Li; Cheng Hong; Li-Yan Chen; Shi-Yue Li

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa416

Effect of Throat Washings on Detection of 2019 Novel Coronavirus

Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Nov 5;71(8):1980-1981. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa416.

Authors

Wen-Liang Guo¹, Qian Jiang¹, Feng Ye¹, Shao-Qiang Li¹, Cheng Hong¹, Li-Yan Chen¹, Shi-Yue Li¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

The 2019 novel coronavirus was detected in self-collected throat washings. The positive testing rate of throat washing was much higher than that of nasopharyngeal swabs. Throat washing is a promising candidate for 2019-nCoV screening and monitoring due to its noninvasiveness and reliability.

Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; oropharyngeal washings; throat washings.

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections* / diagnosis
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Coronavirus*
Humans
Mouth
Pandemics*
Pharynx
Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
Reproducibility of Results
SARS-CoV-2