{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T17:03:07Z","timestamp":1785430987413,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,10]],"date-time":"2021-06-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1623283200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Japan Agency for Medical Research","award":["JP20he0622041"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JP20he0622041"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Objectives<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome\u2013coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is essential for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We compared the quantitative RT-PCR results between nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva specimens.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A COVID-19 outbreak occurred on a cruise ship at Nagasaki port, Japan. We obtained 123 nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva each from asymptomatic or mild patients in the late phase of infection.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The intervals from the diagnosis to the sampling were 25.5 days for nasopharyngeal swabs and 28.9 days for saliva. The positive rate was 19.5% (24\/123) for nasopharyngeal swabs and 38.2% (47\/123) for saliva (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.48). The quantified viral copies (mean \u00b1 SEM copies\/5 \u03bcl) were 9.3\u00b12.6 in nasopharyngeal swabs and 920\u00b1850 in saliva (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.0006).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The advantages of saliva specimens include positive rate improvement and accurate viral load detection. Saliva may be used as a reliable sample for SARS-CoV-2 detection.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0252964","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,10]],"date-time":"2021-06-10T23:57:28Z","timestamp":1623369448000},"page":"e0252964","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":25,"title":["Detection of SARS-CoV-2 using qRT-PCR in saliva obtained from asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 patients, comparative analysis with matched nasopharyngeal 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