Two cases of COVID-19 with positive salivary and negative pharyngeal or respiratory swabs at hospital discharge: A rising concern

Lorenzo Azzi; Giulio Carcano; Daniella Dalla Gasperina; Fausto Sessa; Vittorio Maurino; Andreina Baj

doi:10.1111/odi.13368

Two cases of COVID-19 with positive salivary and negative pharyngeal or respiratory swabs at hospital discharge: A rising concern

Oral Dis. 2021 Apr;27 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):707-709. doi: 10.1111/odi.13368. Epub 2020 May 11.

Authors

Lorenzo Azzi¹, Giulio Carcano², Daniella Dalla Gasperina³, Fausto Sessa⁴, Vittorio Maurino¹, Andreina Baj⁵

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Oral Medicine and Pathology, ASST dei Sette Laghi - Ospedale di Circolo, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
² Unit of General, Emergency and Transplant Surgery, ASST dei Sette Laghi - Ospedale di Circolo, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
³ Unit of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, ASST dei Sette Laghi - Ospedale di Circolo, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
⁴ Unit of Pathology, ASST dei Sette Laghi - Ospedale di Circolo, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.
⁵ Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, ASST dei Sette Laghi - Ospedale di Circolo, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.

Abstract

We report two cases of COVID-19 showing negative respiratory swabs but positive salivary samples at the same time. These findings rise the concern about how to manage these patients before hospital discharging, thus avoiding contagion among their family members or a second coronavirus wave once the lockdown is over.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; nCoV-2019; saliva.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Communicable Disease Control
Hospitals
Humans
Patient Discharge
SARS-CoV-2