The SARS-CoV-2 viral load in saliva might help guide doctors' care of patients because it is a better predictor of disease course than viral load in nasopharyngeal swab samples, researchers say. They studied 26 mildly ill COVID-19 patients, 154 hospitalized patients - including 63 who became critically ill and 23 who died - and 108 uninfected individuals. Saliva viral load, but not nasopharyngeal viral load, was linked with COVID-19 risk factors like age and gender, and with immune system responses. Saliva viral load was also superior to nasopharyngeal viral load at predicting critical illness and death, the researchers reported in a paper posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Mucociliary clearance propels virus from the lower respiratory tract to the oral cavity, coauthor Akiko Iwasaki of Yale University explained in a tweet on Sunday. The saliva viral load therefore better reflects viral replication and "the critical source driving severe disease." —Reuters Staff Source
