Clinical Utility of Buccal Swabs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Detection in Coronavirus Disease 2019-Infected Children

Kai-Qian Kam; Chee Fu Yung; Matthias Maiwald; Chia Yin Chong; Han Yang Soong; Liat Hui Loo; Natalie Woon Hui Tan; Jiahui Li; Karen Donceras Nadua; Koh Cheng Thoon

doi:10.1093/jpids/piaa068

Clinical Utility of Buccal Swabs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Detection in Coronavirus Disease 2019-Infected Children

J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2020 Jul 13;9(3):370-372. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piaa068.

Authors

Kai-Qian Kam^{1

2

3}, Chee Fu Yung^{1

2

4}, Matthias Maiwald^{5

2

6}, Chia Yin Chong^{1

2

4

3}, Han Yang Soong⁵, Liat Hui Loo⁵, Natalie Woon Hui Tan^{1

2

4

3}, Jiahui Li^{1

2

3}, Karen Donceras Nadua^{1

2

3}, Koh Cheng Thoon^{1

2

4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Infectious Disease Service, Department of Pediatrics, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
² Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
³ Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
⁴ Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Imperial College London, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
⁵ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
⁶ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detected from at least 1 buccal specimen in 9 of 11 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-infected children (81.8%). Viral loads in buccal specimens were substantially lower than those in nasopharyngeal specimens. Buccal swabs are not good as COVID-19 screening specimens in children.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; buccal; saliva; viral load.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

MeSH terms

Betacoronavirus*
COVID-19
Cheek
Child
Child, Preschool
Coronavirus Infections / diagnosis*
Coronavirus Infections / virology
Humans
Infant
Mouth Mucosa / virology*
Nasopharynx / virology
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral / diagnosis*
Pneumonia, Viral / virology
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
SARS-CoV-2
Saliva / virology
Viral Load