Sibounheuang B. auteur aut IRD Boutthasavong L. auteur aut IRD Chommanam D. auteur aut IRD Phommasone K. auteur aut IRD Panapruksachat S. auteur aut IRD Praphasiri V. auteur aut IRD Bouttavong S. auteur aut IRD Sisavath H. auteur aut IRD Christy N. C. auteur aut IRD Letizia A. G. auteur aut IRD Mayxay M. auteur aut IRD Vongsouvath M. auteur aut IRD Ashley E. A. auteur aut IRD Dubot Pérès Audrey auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Background Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 circulation is mainly based on real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, which requires laboratory facilities and cold chain for sample transportation. This is difficult to achieve in remote rural areas of resource-limited settings. The use of dried blood spots shipped at room temperature has shown good efficiency for the detection of arboviral RNA. Using a similar approach, we conducted a study at 3 provincial hospitals in Laos to compare the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from neat and dried spot samples.Methods Between January 2022 and March 2023, patients with respiratory symptoms were recruited. Nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs in virus transport medium (VTM), dry swabs, saliva, and dried saliva spotted on filter paper were collected. All samples were tested by SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.Results In total, 479 participants were included. The VTM samples tested positive for 288 (60.1%). High positive percent agreements were observed for dry swab (84.8%; 95% CI, 80.2%-88.8%) and saliva (89.2%; 95% CI, 85.1%-92.6%) as compared with VTM. There was a loss of sensitivity when saliva was dried on filter paper (73.6%; 95% CI, 68.1%-78.6%) as compared with saliva. SARS-CoV-2 variant (Delta or Omicron) had no significant impact on the performance of the different sample types.Conclusions Our findings suggest that dry swabs could be a good alternative for sample collection and permit easy shipping at ambient temperature for subsequent viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA purification and molecular investigation. This is a useful tool to consider for a rapid implementation of large-scale surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in remote areas, which could be extrapolated to other respiratory targets during routine surveillance or in the case of a novel emerging pandemic. specialized COVID-19 dry saliva spot dry swab resource-limited settings SARS-CoV-2 LAOS 052 050 11 8 ofae433 [9 p.] 2024 2328-8957 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010091246 10.1093/ofid/ofae433 2328-8957 [F B010091246] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010091246 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/2024-09/010091246.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2024-09-27 2024-09-27 fdi:010091246 fre