MANILA – The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) will present the result of its study on the use of saliva as a specimen for Covid-19 testing on Wednesday (Jan. 20), a health official said Monday.
In an online media forum, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the PRC was supposed to present the findings of its study to the country's laboratory experts panel on Monday but requested to reschedule the presentation to Wednesday because "they were finalizing the analysis".
"So, pag-present po sa lab experts panel and it is acceptable, isa-submit na po natin iyan sa health technology assessment council para makapagbigay din sila ng (So, when it's presented to the lab experts panel and it is acceptable, we'll submit that to the health technology assessment council to provide their) recommendations," Vergeire said.
"In parallel, the Philippine Red Cross should be able to register already the testing kits na ginagamit na saliva specimen para sa test ng RT-PCR sa (which used saliva specimen in the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test to the) Food and Drug Administration (FDA)," she added.
She also said a validation study stating that the use of saliva as a specimen for Covid-19 testing is acceptable is needed before the DOH can adopt the protocol.
"If all these are there already, acceptable, may FDA registration, agad-agad po magagamit na natin iyan (we can immediately use that), we can draft the protocol so other laboratories can also apply this," Vergeire said. (PNA)
