COVID-19; community monitoring; pandemic; preventive health behavior; saliva testing; Medicine (miscellaneous); Social Sciences (miscellaneous); Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous); Health Policy
Abstract :
[en] Current public health debate centers on COVID-19 testing methods and strategies. In some communities, high transmission risk may justify routine testing, and this requires test methods that are safe and efficient for both patients and the administrative or health-care workers administering them. Saliva testing appears to satisfy those criteria. There is, however, little documentation on the acceptability of this method among beneficiaries. This article presents the lessons learned from a pilot study on the use of saliva testing for routine screening of nursing home and secondary school personnel in Wallonia (the French-speaking part of Belgium), conducted in December 2020 to April 2021, respectively. Administrators at the facilities in question seemed to think highly of saliva testing and wished to continue it after the pilot study was over. This result reinforces the criteria (the noninvasive aspect, in particular) supporting a key role for saliva testing in monitoring community spread of the virus. Nevertheless, wider-scale deployment of this particular method will only be possible if the testing strategy as a whole takes a health promotion approach.
Disciplines :
Public health, health care sciences & services
Author, co-author :
Pétré, Benoît ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la santé publique
Paridans, Marine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la santé publique > Education thérapeutique du patient au service des soins intégrés
Gillain, Nicolas ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Santé publique : de la Biostatistique à la Promotion de la Santé
Husson, Eddy ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Santé publique : de la Biostatistique à la Promotion de la Santé
Donneau, Anne-Françoise ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Santé publique : de la Biostatistique à la Promotion de la Santé
Dardenne, Nadia ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Santé publique : de la Biostatistique à la Promotion de la Santé
Breuer, Christophe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie
Michel, Fabienne ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'économie > UER Economie : Economie sociale et systèmes économiques
Dandoy, Margaux ; Université de Liège - ULiège > GIGA > GIGA I3 - Cellular and Molecular Immunology
World Health Organization [WHO]. 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019 nCoV): strategic preparedness and response plan. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. Available from: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/srp-04022020.pdf. Accessed September 15, 2021.
European Center for disease prevention and control (ECDC). COVID-19 testing strategies and objectives; 2020. Available from: https://www.ecdc. europa.eu/en/publications-data/covid-19-testing-strategies-and-objectives. Accessed September 15, 2021.
CDC. Population-wide testing of SARS-CoV-2: country experiences and potential approaches in the EU/EEA and the United Kingdom; 2020. Available from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/covid-19-population-wide-testing-country-experiences.pdf. Accessed September 15, 2021.
Defêche J, Azarzar S, Mesdagh A, et al. In-depth longitudinal comparison of clinical specimens to detect SARS-CoV-2. Pathogens. 2021;10:1362. doi:10.3390/pathogens10111362
Kapoor P, Chowdhry A, Prakash Kharbanda O, Bablani Popli D, Gautam K, Saini V. Exploring salivary diagnostics in COVID-19: a scoping review and research suggestions. BDJ Open. 2021;7(1):8. doi:10.1038/s41405-021-00064-7
Tan SH, Allicock O, Armstrong-Hough M, Wyllie AL. Saliva as a gold-standard sample for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Lancet Respir Med. 2021;9 (6):562–564. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00178-8
Oba J, Taniguchi H, Sato M, et al. RT-PCR screening tests for SARS-CoV-2 with saliva samples in asymptomatic people: strategy to maintain social and economic activities while reducing the risk of spreading the virus. Keio J Med. 2021;70:35–43. doi:10.2302/kjm.2021-0003-OA
Wilson JMG, Jungner G. Principles and Practice of Screening for Disease. Public Health Paper Number 34. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1968.
Saegerman C, Donneau AF, Speybroeck N, et al. Repetitive saliva-based mass screening as a tool for controlling SARS-CoV-2 transmission in nursing homes. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2021;3:1–10.
Gillain S, Belche JL, Moreau JF. Covid-19 epidemic in the nursing homes in Belgium. Jour Nursing Home Res. 2020;6:40–42.
Hall EW, Luisi N, Zlotorzynska M, et al. Willingness to use home collection methods to provide specimens for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 research: survey Study. J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(9):e19471. doi:10.2196/19471
Valentine-Graves M, Hall E, Guest JL, et al. At-home self-collection of saliva, oropharyngeal swabs and dried blood spots for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and serology: post-collection acceptability of specimen collection process and patient confidence in specimens. PLoS One. 2020;15(8): e0236775. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236775
Berger Gillam T, Cole J, Gharbi K, et al. Norwich COVID-19 testing initiative pilot: evaluating the feasibility of asymptomatic testing on a University campus. J Pub Health. 2020;43(1):82–88. doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdaa194
De Vries H. An integrated approach for understanding health behavior; the I-change model as an example. Psychol Behav Sci Int J. 2017;2 (2):555e85. doi:10.19080/PBSIJ.2017.02.555585
Goldfarb DM, Tilley P, Al-Rawahi GN, et al. Self-collected saline gargle samples as an alternative to health care worker-collected nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 diagnosis in outpatients. J Clin Microbiol. 2021;59(4):e02427–20. doi:10.1128/JCM.02427-20
Saidani M, Kim H, Kim J, Gadekallu TR. Designing optimal COVID-19 testing stations locally: a discrete event simulation model applied on a university campus. PLoS One. 2021;16(6):e0253869. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0253869
Ehrenberg A, Moehle E, Brook C, et al. Launching a saliva-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance testing program on a University campus. PLoS One. 2021;16(5):e0251296. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251296
Hatfield K, Reddy S, Forsberg K, et al. Facility-wide testing for SARS-CoV-2 in nursing homes — seven U.S. jurisdictions, March–June 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(32):1095–1099. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6932e5
Pétré B, Kirkove D, de Andrade V, et al. Monitoring population behaviour during a public health crisis: feedback based on survey practices in France and Belgium during the first Covid-19 stay-at-home order. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2021;15:807–809. doi:10.2147/PPA.S298401
Braz-Silva P, Mamana A, Romano C, et al. Performance of at-home self-collected saliva and nasal-oropharyngeal swabs in the surveillance of COVID-19. J Oral Microbiol. 2020;13(1):1858002. doi:10.1080/20002297.2020.1858002
Kohmer N, Eckermann L, Böddinghaus B, et al. Self-collected samples to detect SARS-CoV-2: direct comparison of Saliva, Tongue Swab, Nasal Swab, chewed cotton pads and gargle lavage. J Clin Med. 2021;10(24):5751. doi:10.3390/jcm10245751
Yardley L, Richard A, Rice C, Robin C, Michie S. How can we involve communities in managing the covid-19 pandemic? BMJ Opin. 2020. Available from: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/03/17/how-can-we-involve-communities-in-managing-the-covid-19-pandemic
Van den Broucke S. Why health promotion matters to the COVID-19 pandemic, and vice versa. Health Promot Int. 2020;35:181–186. doi:10.1093/heapro/daaa042
