Rapid Tests for H1N1

My son was showing some symptoms of Influenja A. He was tested "weakly positive" in swab test. However we did not started tamiflu and just continued Antibiotic and fever reducer syrup for two days. He has low grade fever today.(his test was done yesterday)%0d%0a%0d%0aShould we start Tamiflu or just ignore as he is getting better with normal medicine.%0d%0a

The CDC's Lab Outreach and Communication System (LOCS)  provided a discussion of rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) in the August 7 edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5830a2.htm?s_cid=mm5830a2_e

Comparing 3 commercially available RIDTs to real time PCR (RT-PCR), the sensitivity was a disappointing 40% to 69%. So rapid diagnostic tests are not where laboratorinas and clinicians would like them to be. They will still miss quite  a few cases of H1N1

FLU (A, B, H1N1, etc...) cannot be accurately detected - even if the Pope himself blessed the wire swab - if the sample isn't collected properly.  I have asked countless times to those who collect them how they collected the sample, only for the wrong answer to be returned.  Many of the people collecting these samples cannot pronounce nasopharynx, let alone tell you where it is.

They have merely taken the swab, rubbed it around the nares and gotten it full of snot and sent it down, hoping for the best in return.  When we report out negative, it is of no surprise to me.  

It was during the winter months and the early beginnings of the Swine Flu ordeal that I started to question the number of negative results our lab has been obtaining for FLU A/B.  Since I know that our kit test is pretty rock solid and hard to mess up, (any errors at all) had to be possibly preanalytical.  Come to find out through many channels, the proper people werent collecting the samples, therefore were they collected properly ?????  

Ok, some were trying to send flu samples down on culture swabs.  If that swab had actually managed to make it up the nare and to the back of the N-Pharynx, I would have given a gold medal to the patient for not knocking the nurse out.  >Rejeted<  

Some were sending them down in anarobe (gel at bottom) culture swabs.. (see above) >rejected<  

the list goes on and on ad nauseum......

As the beginning of the second page of the NY Times article states, the rapid immunoassays for Flu A/B do NOT test specifically for H1N1/"swine" flu. (Many other "seasonal" flu strains are classified under influenza A, along with the H1N1 virus.

Although it isn't exactly relevant to the article, I have to mention (as I did earlier on another Advance laboratorians' blog) how much it GETS ON MY NERVES whenever I see the little video bite on the news depicting one of us "invisible" laboratory professionals swabbing a BACTERIAL culture plate while an announcer is discussing the "swine flu" VIRUS.