Gargled water samples may be an alternative for detecting COVID-19: ICMR

Guwahati: In a significant breakthrough, a study published in the ICMR's Indian Journal of Medical Research, has revealed that argled water samples may be a viable alternative to swabs for detection of COVID-19.

If the reports are proved right, this will enable the easy self-collection and remove the need for trained healthcare workers for sample collection.

The study highlighted that this will significantly reduce the testing costs as there will be no need for swabs and personal protective equipment.

The study named as "Gargle lavage as a viable alternative to swab for detection of SARS-CoV-2" has been authored by several prominent medical personnel.

Stating that "swab collection has several drawbacks also as it requires training, exposes the healthcare workers to the virus-containing aerosols, has poor patient acceptability and is resource-intensive", the ICMR study underlined that an alternative sample collection method that could overcome most of these limitations without compromising the yield of the test is the need of the hour."

One such method is the collection of gargle lavage, it stated. "Although the use of gargle specimens is not new, at present, there is little published information on the suitability of gargle specimens to diagnose SARSCoV-2 infection," the study stated.

This ICMR study was, therefore, conducted to assess the performance of gargle lavage in comparison to swabs for the detection of the Wuhan-originating virus.

As per reports, this was a cross-sectional study conducted at the AIIMS in New Delhi over a period of one month (May-June) on 50 COVID-19 patients.

Paired swab and gargle samples were taken from the COVID-19 patients within 72 hours of their diagnosis.

The samples were processed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 strain.

"All gargle samples were positive and comparable to their corresponding swab samples irrespective of the symptoms and duration of illness," the ICMR study said.

Furthermore, the patients reported feeling much less discomfort while giving gargle samples in comparison to the swab samples.

"It is a viable alternative to conventional swab collection with several distinct advantages and will have significant clinical and public health impacts in terms of better acceptability, easy self-collection, sparing of healthcare workers and cost-effectiveness," the study said.

According to the ICMR's  study, the major limitation of this study was its cross-sectional design and it was performed only on a limited number of positive cases.

The study further stated that it would be necessary to evaluate the performance using different viral RNA isolation platforms.

Also Watch: WATCH: How Kaziranga Vets Cared For Rescued Rhino