Is OraQuick Oral Swab OK?

[Wolf Mountain]

Strata got me curious.  Is there any bad word out there about OraQuick Advance oral swab?  That is what I tested with several months after my encounter...over eight months actually.  Everybody at the testing center, doc on this website, everybody...(I was a very very worried well, still am to an extent) said the oral swab was perfectly legit but unused in some places because of false positives.  Anyway, I would love to hear what the community here thinks.  Strata, did you hear anything negative about the oral swab at the center you tested at?  Great news on that, hope everything keeps going good for you.

[Teak]

No there is nothing wrong with the swab. There was a batch that gave out a lot of false positive but it was quickly corrected. Your test was reliable.

[strata]

WM,

There's nothing 'wrong' per se with the oral swab test. I asked the WWC tech why they had discontinued the use of the oral swab, and he just said it was the new director's policy. I asked if it had to do with the false-positives that Teak referred to, but he didn't seem to know.

In any case, the bad press was 1+ year ago, and WWC just discontinued the use of the oral swab within the last month.

The oral swab is SLIGHTLY less sensitive than the finger stick test: 99.3% vs 99.6%, but both are considered definitive at 3 months post exposure.

[cholny29]

I have had three oral swabs and as far as I know never experienced any problems with them. COngratulations on being negative. Goodluck and Godbless!

[Xhost]

I remember the story of the bad batch of OQ tests that were coming up false positive. The local health department (I live in the DC metro area) discontinued their use for some period of time, but they are back to offering it now.