Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Physicians are being urged to use their own clinical judgment on whether to treat someone for the flu, even though the patient's rapid influenza test may come up negative.
Rapid testing for conventional seasonal influenza is 70 percent reliable, at best. But the State Health Department says it's most likely even worse for the novel H1N1 virus.
In Utah's first H1N1 death last month, the patient, Marcos Sanchez, was sent home from the hospital only to return the next day, even sicker. He was later sent to another hospital, where he died.
We've since had three more deaths, and one of those three apparently had a similar experience. According to her brother, Francine Rushton tested negative for the flu each of three times she went to the hospital even though she had symptoms and even though she had been a caregiver for her mother who did have H1N1.
Francine died Saturday.
State epidemiologist Dr. Robert Rolfs say despite CDC and State Health guidelines, physicians throughout Utah need to use their own good judgment as a clinician, not relying on rapid outpatient tests, which more than thirty percent of the time may not be accurate with this new virus.
"If you're a clinician in Utah right now, we have a pretty vigorous transmission of this virus. If I see somebody who seems like they have influenza and I only have a rapid test, I would be inclined to trust my clinical judgment right now even if the test is negative," Dr. Rolfs said.
Despite sickness levels, Dr. Rolfs says total H1N1 cases, including hospitalizations, are comparable to what the state would normally see in a seasonal "moderately bad" influenza outbreak. So what makes this one different? It's affecting not the very old or the very young, but the middle-age group.
Again, Dr. Rolfs said, "If someone looks like they have influenza in this area right now, I think they probably have influenza. If they were exposed to somebody who also had influenza, it makes it even more likely of influenza."
In those cases, plus those defined as high risk, patients probably should go on an anti-viral drug.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
