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Flu testing centre handles high demand
By MICHAEL FOX - Stuff.co.nz
Last updated 11:37 18/06/2009
The Government's national influenza testing centre has cut its testing time by more than a third as it struggles to cope with rising numbers of suspected swine flu cases.
Environment Science and Research's National Influenza Centre (NIC) head Sue Huang said new methods had cut testing times from around 30 hours to eight, resulting in them testing a record 350 samples yesterday.
When the virus first arrived, the NIC relied on a time-consuming method of sequencing whereas they now have a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
Dr Huang said they were "frantically busy" trying to cope with the rising number of samples.
The NIC would normally only test samples which had already been confirmed as influenza to confirm the strain but hospitals were so overworked that the centre was now also doing primary tests.
"Currently it has overwhelmed every single hospital lab," she said. "So we stepped in to help them with that."
Other than the NIC, only Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch hospitals were capable of carrying out the PCR tests.
As well as the nationwide sampling, the centre was also undertaking testing for the Pacific Islands and had identified the first swine flu outbreak in Samoa on Tuesday.
With added staff numbers, including scientists brought over from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and AgResearch, they now had around 12 staff working in the lab.
Dr Huang said if the Government's strategy moved from containment to management, they would switch their focus to testing only samples from more serious cases.
People suspected of carrying swine flu would be treated with Tamiflu without necessarily being tested.
"We will focus on people with chronic illness or people who are at risk of influenza complications," she said.
Dr Huang said this was so they could identify any mutations or more virulent strains.
While they were testing so many samples, there were still very few cases of swine flu, with around two or three positive results a day, as many of the tests were for people suspected of having been in contact with a carrier.
New Zealand was following the way the virus developed in other countries, which helped health officials predict how it would work here.
Dr Huang said that robotic laboratory equipment was being used to analyse the influenza specimens. The machine worked by extracting the nucleic acid of the virus before the PCR test confirmed whether it was swine flu or not.
As the procedure needed to be repeated twice, staff conducted 700 PCR tests yesterday.
By MICHAEL FOX - Stuff.co.nz
Last updated 11:37 18/06/2009
The Government's national influenza testing centre has cut its testing time by more than a third as it struggles to cope with rising numbers of suspected swine flu cases.
Environment Science and Research's National Influenza Centre (NIC) head Sue Huang said new methods had cut testing times from around 30 hours to eight, resulting in them testing a record 350 samples yesterday.
When the virus first arrived, the NIC relied on a time-consuming method of sequencing whereas they now have a technique called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
Dr Huang said they were "frantically busy" trying to cope with the rising number of samples.
The NIC would normally only test samples which had already been confirmed as influenza to confirm the strain but hospitals were so overworked that the centre was now also doing primary tests.
"Currently it has overwhelmed every single hospital lab," she said. "So we stepped in to help them with that."
Other than the NIC, only Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch hospitals were capable of carrying out the PCR tests.
As well as the nationwide sampling, the centre was also undertaking testing for the Pacific Islands and had identified the first swine flu outbreak in Samoa on Tuesday.
With added staff numbers, including scientists brought over from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and AgResearch, they now had around 12 staff working in the lab.
Dr Huang said if the Government's strategy moved from containment to management, they would switch their focus to testing only samples from more serious cases.
People suspected of carrying swine flu would be treated with Tamiflu without necessarily being tested.
"We will focus on people with chronic illness or people who are at risk of influenza complications," she said.
Dr Huang said this was so they could identify any mutations or more virulent strains.
While they were testing so many samples, there were still very few cases of swine flu, with around two or three positive results a day, as many of the tests were for people suspected of having been in contact with a carrier.
New Zealand was following the way the virus developed in other countries, which helped health officials predict how it would work here.
Dr Huang said that robotic laboratory equipment was being used to analyse the influenza specimens. The machine worked by extracting the nucleic acid of the virus before the PCR test confirmed whether it was swine flu or not.
As the procedure needed to be repeated twice, staff conducted 700 PCR tests yesterday.