ArticleJournal of virological methods2020
Comparison analysis of different swabs and transport mediums suitable for SARS-CoV-2 testing following shortages.
Article in Journal of virological methods, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Performance of saline and water gargling for SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase PCR testing: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluation of Universal Biomolecular Medium for Molecular Detection of Respiratory Viruses: A Paired, Multi-Platform Comparison.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- A Narrative Review of Remote Biospecimen Collection Product and Implementation Considerations for Sexual Health Clinical Research.AIDS and behavior · 2026Review
- Standardizing vaginal microbial profiling: evaluating swab materials, storage conditions, and host DNA depletion strategies.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Comparative evaluation of different transport media for H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Viral load in hospitalized infants with respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis: a three-way comparative analysis.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Testing for SARS-CoV-2: lessons learned and current use cases.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Nasopharyngeal angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression as a risk-factor for SARS-CoV-2 transmission in concurrent hospital associated outbreaks.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Article
- Performance Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Transport Medium Produced by Bangladesh Reference Institute for Chemical Measurements.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Underscoring the effect of swab type, workflow, and positive sample order on swab pooling for COVID-19 surveillance testing.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Evaluation of diagnostic performance of SARS-CoV-2 detection kits: a comparative study.Beni-Suef University journal of basic and applied sciences · 2023Article
- Molecular Diagnosis of COVID-19; Biosafety and Pre-analytical Recommendations.Iranian journal of pathology · 2023Review
- Validation of saline, PBS and a locally produced VTM at varying storage conditions to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus by qRT-PCR.PloS one · 2023Article
- Environmental Persistence of Monkeypox Virus on Surfaces in Household of Person with Travel-Associated Infection, Dallas, Texas, USA, 2021.Emerging infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Article
- Performance of anterior nares and tongue swabs for nucleic acid, Nucleocapsid, and Spike antigen testing for detecting SARS-CoV-2 against nasopharyngeal PCR and viral culture.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Article
- Analysis by real-time PCR of five transport and conservation mediums of nasopharyngeal swab samples to COVID-19 diagnosis in Santiago of Chile.Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- Influence of preanalytical parameters on influenza and respiratory syncytial virus molecular detection.Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · 2022Article
- Acceptability of OP/Na swabbing for SARS-CoV-2: a prospective observational cohort surveillance study in Western Australian schools.BMJ open · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) assessed COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, as a pandemic. As of June 1, 2020, SARS-CoV-2 has had a documented effect of over 6 million cases world-wide, amounting to over 370,000 deaths (World Health Organization, 2020. Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Situation. http://https://covid19.who.int/). Consequently, the high demand for testing has resulted in a depletion of commercially available consumables, including the recommended swabs and viral transport media (VTM) required for nasopharyngeal sampling. Therefore, the potential use of unvalidated alternatives must be explored to address the global shortage of testing supplies. To tackle this issue, we evaluated the utility of different swabs and transport mediums for the molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2. This study compared the performance of six swabs commonly found in primary and tertiary health care settings (PurFlock Ultra, FLOQSwab, Puritan Pur-Wraps cotton tipped applicators, Puritan polyester tipped applicators, MedPro 6" cotton tipped applicators, and HOLOGIC Aptima) for their efficacy in testing for SARS-CoV-2. Separately, the molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 was completed from different transport mediums (DMEM, PBS, 100 % ethanol, 0.9 % normal saline and VTM), which were kept up to three days at room temperature (RT). The results indicate that there is no meaningful difference in viral yield from different swabs and most transport mediums for the collection and detection of SARS-CoV-2, indicating swab and medium alternatives could be used if supplies run out.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.