The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers saliva contact the lead transmission means of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Saliva droplets or aerosols expelled by heavy breathing, talking, sneezing, and coughing may carry this virus. People in close distance may be exposed directly or indirectly to these droplets, especially those droplets that fall on surrounding surfaces and people may end up contracting COVID-19 after touching the mucosa tissue on their faces. It is of great interest to quickly and effectively detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in an environment, but the existing methods only work in laboratory settings, to the best of our knowledge. However, it may be possible to detect the presence of saliva in the environment and proceed with prevention measures. However, detecting saliva itself has not been documented in the literature. On the other hand, many sensors that detect different organic components in saliva to monitor a person's health and diagnose different diseases that range from diabetes to dental health have been proposed and they may be used to detect the presence of saliva. This paper surveys sensors that detect organic and inorganic components of human saliva. Humidity sensors are also considered in the detection of saliva because a large portion of saliva is water. Moreover, sensors that detect infectious viruses are also included as they may also be embedded into saliva sensors for a confirmation of the virus' presence. A classification of sensors by their working principle and the substance they detect is presented. This comparison lists their specifications, sample size, and sensitivity. Indications of which sensors are portable and suitable for field application are presented. This paper also discusses future research and challenges that must be resolved to realize practical saliva sensors. Such sensors may help minimize the spread of not only COVID-19 but also other infectious diseases.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 detection; droplet detection; human saliva; humidity sensor; multi-modal saliva detection; saliva sensor; virus detection; virus sensor.