Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- According to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the tests for detecting H1N1 vary from 10 to 70 percent accuracy.
One infectious disease specialist told News19 that the tests can't be relied on.
"If I'm making a decision, and your life depends on it, and something can be wrong nine times out of 10, I'm not going to use it," infectious disease specialist Dr. Stephen Hawes says.
Those are the odds you could be facing with rapid flu test results. According to the CDC, The sensitivity of tests detecting H1N1 vary from 10 to 70 percent. Dr. Hawes says you can't rely on the test.
"The biggest problem we see with this test is that doctors and other health care professionals think that if the test is negative then you don't have flu. That's absolutely incorrect," he explains.
What goes in to taking this test? Alphonso Barker Junior does between three and 15 rapid flu tests a day in the VA Medical Center lab. It all starts with a nose swab.
"We take that specimen and we have a test card that we use, pipette it and inoculate the card. There should be a line for flu a if it's positive for A and there should be a red line if it's positive for flu B," he explains.
It takes only 15 minutes. The positive specimens are sent to the Department of Health of Environmental Control to confirm swine flu. Dr. Hawes says, either way, if you have the symptoms, treat them.
"If you're sick, need to be in the hospital, or you're high risk, pregnant, need to be on immunosuppressant drugs, you should receive Tamiflu and it does not matter one bit what the rapid flu test says," Dr. Hawes says.
11/6/2009 7:40:42 PM
