• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

N Engl J Med. Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans

Giuseppe

Emeritus
NEJM -- Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans

Correspondence

Published at www.nejm.org June 29, 2009 (10.1056/NEJMc0904264)

Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans


To the Editor:

The Naval Health Research Center serves as the Navy hub for the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS), in which it monitors influenza-like illness among recruit trainees of all military services, military dependents, and crew members of large Navy ships (population, >1000). The center works in collaboration with the Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which monitors populations located on the border between California and Mexico. The first two human cases of novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV), known as swine flu, in the United States were detected through these programs.1 In the first case, an untypable influenza A strain was identified at a surveillance site of the Naval Health Research Center by a new diagnostic device. The test results were forwarded per protocol to the study reference laboratory for polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) confirmation and were subsequently forwarded to the CDC for identification by sequencing. In the second case, a sample that was obtained at a border surveillance site was found to contain an untypable influenza A strain on PCR testing at the center. Further characterization by PCR assay and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry indicated a swine-origin virus, and sequence data that were sent to the CDC revealed that the viruses in the two samples were identical. In response, surveillance activities of all programs were enhanced to include increased sampling rates, more clinical sites, decreased turnaround time in the laboratory, and rapid influenza testing with the use of QuickVue Influenza A+B (Quidel).
(...)
-
<cite cite="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMc0904264">NEJM -- Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans</cite>
 
Re: N Engl J Med. Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans

So, the rapid test only detects the swine flu about 1/2 the time though it has almost no false positives. I sure hope this test isn't the one used to decide whether to dispense anti-virals.

Excerpt:

Rapid-test results for 767 patients
during this influenza season were available
for comparison and were positive for 20 of
39 patients who had positive results for S-OIV on
RT-PCR assay (sensitivity, 51%; 95% confidence
interval [CI], 35 to 67)
, for 12 of 19 patients who
had positive results for H1N1 seasonal influenza
on RT-PCR (sensitivity, 63%; 95% CI, 39 to 82),
and for 6 of 19 of patients who had positive results
for H3N2 influenza on RT-PCR (sensitivity,
31%; 95% CI, 14 to 57). The specificity of the
test, as compared with that of RT-PCR, was 99%
in all cases.
 
Back
Top