Saliva test for coronavirus not available for SEMO

Getting your saliva examined to get a quick answer about coronavirus depends on where you live — and more to the point, at what university you attend.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has an emergency-use authorization for what it calls a rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 test.

Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, director of health communication for Southeast Missouri State University, said the Food and Drug Administration’s permission is limited.

“(University of Illinois) is able to use (the test) on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Springfield and Chicago,” said Clubbs, an instructor at Southeast since 2002.

“The FDA must give approval before other schools can have access,” she added, noting such sanction has not been given.

The University of Illinois, one of 131 R-1 public research schools in the U.S., developed its own diagnostic exam but the FDA has not extended approval to lab-test saliva elsewhere.

Students participating in the “Living at Southeast” Facebook group asked over the Labor Day weekend why the rapid exam is not available at Southeast.

“It’s a matter of FDA approval, which we don’t have, and also capacity,” Clubbs said.

“(Southeast) is a splendid regional university, but we do not have the resources of a R-1 school,” she added.

Part of the advantage University of Illinois has, said Clubbs, is the saliva test is theirs and the lab does its work on site.

Most coronavirus tests involve the use of a long, invasive nasopharyngeal swab, but the so-called I-COVID saliva test requires those tested to drool a small amount into a sterile test tube.

I-COVID, according to the Illinois News Bureau at University of Illinois, reports results in a matter of hours, even at high testing volumes.

University of Illinois has performed more than 50,000 tests since making walk-up exams available to university students, faculty and staff since July.

“Once somebody is infected, the amount of virus in their system can rise very rapidly,” said Rebecca Lee Smith, University of Illinois pathobiology professor.

“Unless we have a test that can give them results very quickly, by the time someone finds out they are infected, they will spread the virus,” she said.

“The faster we can notify people the faster we can stop the spread,” Smith noted.