Gargled water samples might be a feasible alternative to swabs for detection of COVID-19, enabling easy self-collection and taking away the need for trained health care workers for sample collection, according to a study published at the ICMR's Indian Journal of Medical Research.

Adoption of gargle lavage for sample group will have a significant effect as it also leads to substantial cost savings by cutting the demand for swabs and personal protective equipment, the analysis emphasized.

The authors of the analysis"Gargle lavage as a viable choice to swab for detection of SARS-CoV-2" comprise Dr Naveet Wig, Dr Manish Soneja, Dr Neeraj Nischal and also Dr Ankit Mittal in the department of Medicine at AIIMS, Dr Anjan Trikha and Dr Kapil Dev Soni from the department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine in AIIMS among others.

"Swab group has a lot of drawbacks also because it takes training, exposes the healthcare employees to the virus including aerosols, has poor patient acceptability and is resource intensive.

"An alternate sample collection method which may overcome the majority of these constraints without compromising the return of the test is the need of the hour," the study underlined.

One such method is the assortment of gargle lavage, it mentioned. Even though the usage of gargle specimens is not brand new, at present, there is little published information about the compilation of gargle specimens to diagnose SARSCoV-2 disease, the analysis stated.

This analysis was, therefore, conducted to assess the performance of gargle lavage in comparison with nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs for the discovery of novel coronavirus.

Paired swab and gargle samples were obtained within 72 hours of their diagnosis.

Post-sample collection, a 10-point scale was administered to estimate the level of distress with either of the collection procedures, the analysis stated.

"All gargle samples were favorable and comparable for their own corresponding swab samples no matter the symptoms and duration of illness. The cycle threshold (Ct ) values for gargle samples were marginally higher but equal to those of swabs. Bland-Altman plot revealed good agreement between the two methods," the analysis said.

A majority (72 percent) of those patients reported moderate-to-severe distress with swab collection in comparison to 24 percent reporting just moderate discomfort with gargle collection.

"In conclusion, the study highlights the viability of gargle lavage as an appropriate respiratory sample collection approach.

"It is a workable alternative to conventional swab collection with several distinct advantages and will have significant clinical and public health impacts in relation to better acceptability, easy self-collection, sparing of healthcare workers and cost-effectiveness," the analysis said.

The significant limitation of this analysis was its cross-sectional layout also it was performed only on a limited number of favorable cases.

Additionally, it would be necessary to assess the operation using distinct viral RNA isolation platforms, the study stated.