[Salivary HIV antibodies. Review of current data and future prospectives]

Medical researchers, especially those involved in AIDS studies, have shown increasing interest in the salivary diagnosis in the recent years. Saliva sample collection is simple, quick, non traumatic and it can be done at low cost. Moreover saliva specimens can be collected without significant infection risks for both patients and operators. The presence of HIV-antibodies in the saliva, along with the above mentioned reasons, makes saliva sample a promising means of testing for HIV antibodies. The attached report summarizes the results of studies carried out by various researchers to assess the reliability of several test methods for HIV-antibodies.