Red Cross rolls out saliva testing

The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) will begin today, January 25, administering saliva tests for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), after the government approved its use.

Sen. Richard Gordon, PRC chairman, said the cheaper and less invasive procedure would cost P2,000, half the price of a swab test.

“The Philippine Red Cross brings the RT-PCR saliva test to the country for the first time,” he said in a statement, referring to reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.

The humanitarian organization told The Manila Times its molecular laboratories in Port Area, Manila and Mandaluyong City could do up to 22,000 tests daily. The labs will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The saliva test will be initially available only in the National Capital Region, but Gordon gave assurances that it will be available by February in 13 Red Cross laboratories nationwide.

Those interested in a saliva test can visit: book.redcross1158.com/index.php/book-a-saliva-test/.

Gordon said those who would undergo the test must not eat anything, drink, gargle and smoke or use e-cigarettes 30 minutes prior to the procedure.

The Red Cross also called on the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to include saliva testing in its Covid-19 package.

Philhealth only funds swab tests so far.

“If more people would avail the saliva test, we can lower the cost in the future,” Gordon said.

Unlike swabs, the saliva test does not require a specimen collector to wear personal protective equipment and requires less equipment and reagents.

It is also less invasive than swab tests in which specimens are obtained by swabbing the nasopharyngeal area. The turnaround time is also only around 12 hours, which is much faster than swab tests’ 24 hours.

Despite the saliva test’s advantage, Red Cross molecular laboratory head Dr. Paulyn Ubial has said the organization will continue to do swabs because it remains the “gold standard” when testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV 2) — the virus causing the new coronavirus disease.

Ubial noted, however, that the saliva test is “closest to swab test” in terms of accuracy at 98.11 percent.

The Department of Health requires a validation study involving 1,000 individuals before granting authorization for testing procedures.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing the Red Cross is the only organization authorized to do saliva tests so far.

“We need to wait for the result of the validation test from RITM so other laboratories could use saliva tests,” Vergeire said in Filipino, referring to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, which is conducting a separate validation study.

Ubial said other laboratories could use the technology which “has no patent and rights,” as long as they use the same re-agent the Red Cross is using.

The saliva test was explored as another way to detect SARS-CoV 2 after Red Cross officials met with Dr. Diana Roana, a Filipino scientist at the University of Illinois, who developed the technology.

Saliva testing is also being used in Japan and Singapore to screen passengers in airports, according to Gordon.

As of Sunday, the country’s Covid-19 caseload has reached 513,619, with 475,612 recoveries and 10,242 deaths, according to the Health department.