The Unstoppable Flu

I'm a little skeptical about the use of Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Test (RIDT) for detecting novel influenza A (H1N1), despite it being strongly advocated by the Health Ministry, probably as one of their desperate measures to contain the unstoppable pandemic, apart from liberalising the use of antivirals which hopefully does not get out of hand.



The above table (click to enlarge), sourced from CDC Atlanta, USA showed the latest finding that among the three commercially available RIDT kit, the overall sensitivity was low (40%--69%) among all specimens tested and declined substantially as virus levels decreased. Only QuickVue did quite well with detection rate of 69%, compared to using the more accurate rRT-PCR which is only available in certain labs in this country, notably Institute of Medical Research (IMR) but then they only run them on very ill patients who are admitted for complications of influenza.
According to CDC, a negative RIDT result should NOT be interpreted as indicating the absence of infection, especially since the sensitivity declines as the viral levels decreases.
More updates to come.

Reference source: CDC Atlanta via Malaysian Medical Resources