Dr. Dave Excited About Saliva Test And Encourages Convalescent Plasma Donations

DENVER (CBS4) - The FDA has given emergency use authorization for a new COVID-19 test, the SalivaDirect test as well as the use of convalescent plasma for patients with coronavirus. CBSN Denver had a chance to talk with CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida about the developments in their weekly interview.

Dr. Dave said the approval of the saliva test should help with the mass testing of people and it could help speed up how long it takes to get results.

"The SalivaDirect test was developed by Yale University. It's interesting how it was tested. It was actually utilized in the NBA bubble in Orlando, a very controlled situation. They did the saliva test, which is simply spitting into a cup, and also did the conventional nasal swab testing which is the standard for accuracy."

He explained they did it on about 500 people every day or every other day.

"What they found was that the saliva test was just as accurate as well as quicker than the conventional nasal swab. The test itself is pretty cheap, we're thinking about $10 to have the testing done which is inexpensive compared to what other tests are running right now."

And the results come in a matter of hours, three to 16, rather than days.

As for the convalescent plasma treatment, Dr. Dave said he had a friend who was pretty sick with COVID-19 and did recover rather quickly after getting plasma.

"Here's the deal, we don't whether it was the plasma infusion itself that did it or whether the patients get better on their own. We do think the treatment is most likely helpful but it's never really been tested in people in a controlled fashion."

He pointed out in the times it's been used, different amounts of plasma has been administered and the timing differed as to when in the course of the illness patients received plasma.

Dr. Dave did say he believes more plasma is going to be administered but that brings up another issue.

"Is there going to be enough convalescent to go around to every COVID patient who is hospitalized?" he posited. "This is a very important question because we do know only about 20 percent of the antibodies that are donated are very strong antibodies that do help to possibly fight the infection."

"We have had a lot of people donating and it's great that they do. I would encourage you to do so , if you have had COVID but not all plasma is created equal."

And he also touched on flying in the conversation, saying it may be safer than originally thought. So far there have not be any large outbreaks associated with a one particular flight. The thought is the air filtration systems on planes are pretty good and there are new sanitation and disinfecting procedures.

Dr. Dave did qualify what you need to do protect yourself and that means everyone needs to be wearing a mask.

"You want to make sure that the mask policies are enforced by the airlines and that middle seat is open."

He said it's also important to take precautions while screening and boarding.

We know new developments in the pandemic mean you have new questions. Dr. Dave joins us every Monday morning at 11 to answer those questions on CBSN Denver.