Jemima Ho
KOTA KINABALU: Covid-19 saliva test kits have been available in the market since the last couple of weeks and are now a popular item due to the spike of infection cases locally .
However, the saliva test kit is not the diagnostic kit nor a golden standard to confirm Covid-19 cases, stressed Sabah Pharmaceutical Society president Jemima Ho Wan Dien.
She also said that sale of the Covid-19 saliva kit, either sold physically or online is only allowed through community pharmacies and health facilities.
Ho in a statement on Saturday said that the kit is only a functional test when someone has Covid-19-like symptoms and have been exposed to the virus for five days and above.
“Covid-19 saliva tests cannot detect early Covid-19 cases. At the moment, nasopharyngeal swab PCR test is still the golden standard test for covid-19,” she said.
Ho also pointed out that on August 3 Health Minister Datuk Sri Dr Adham Baba said that the sale of the Covid-19 saliva kit, either sold physically or online will only go through community pharmacies and health facilities.
“If the supplier is found to supply the kit to a non healthcare professional, they can be fined a maximum of RM200,000 or imprisonment of not exceeding two years or both,” she said, adding that the Covid-19 saliva kit as a medical device shall only be sold under correct supervision and correct recording.
According to Ho, upon purchasing of Covid 19 saliva kit, the purchaser is required to record personal particulars with the pharmacy and report the results in MySejahtera.
If the person is found positive, the individual needs to self-refer themselves to a private health facility, Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) like the Likas Sports Centre in Kota Kinabalu or public health clinics, Ho said.
She also stressed that the correct way to use the saliva kit is important.
“We should not eat, drink, smoke or gargle our mouths 30 minutes before using the test kit as it will affect the results. For all of us to break the chain, the correct way of using the screening tool is very important.
“The authenticity of the tool from the correct source is also very important. A false negative result will not help the current situation,” she added.
She also disclosed that currently 11 types of saliva kits have been approved by Malaysia Ministry of Health.
“So only purchase the kit approved by the Malaysia Ministry of Health. The most updated list of Covid-19 saliva test kits approval can be found through www.mda.gov.my. If you have any doubts, please do drop by at the nearest community pharmacies or healthcare facilities for further details.
“We urged all to get vaccinated, observe 3Cs and 3Ws and not to organise or attend any social gathering at the moment. Let’s fight the pandemic together,” she said.
Ho added that the list of test kits approved by the Ministry of Health are Salixium Covid-19 19 antigen rapid test kit, GMate Covid-19 antigen rapid test kit, Beright Covid-19 antigen rapid test kit, ALLtest Covid-19 antigen rapid test kit, Juscheck Covid-19 antigen rapid test kit, Longsee 2019-nCov Ag antigen rapid test kit, Sichuan Xincheng SARS- cov 2 antigen rapid test kit, Flowflex SARS-coV-2 antigen rapid test kit, Standard Q antigen rapid test kit, ProDetect Covid-19 Antigen rapid test kit and Newgene Bioengineering antigen rapid test kit.