How to perform a home antigen test (Ministry of Health)
The US Food and Drug Administration over the weekend approved a combined home test for the flu and the corona virus, giving consumers a very convenient way to determine what exactly they are sick with.
The agency has granted emergency use approval for the Lucira Covid-19 & Flu Test, which provides results within 30 minutes from samples collected by a nasal swab.
The test can be especially useful in times when flu, corona and RSV cause similar symptoms and confuse patients.
This is the first home test for the flu.
Until now, in order to detect the disease, people had to go through an examination at the health insurance funds or emergency codes.
The FDA said that the new test is for people with symptoms of a respiratory infection, including corona.
Flu or Corona?
A woman blowing her nose (Photo: ShutterStock, DimaBerlin)
The test, developed as mentioned by the Californian biotech company Lucira Health, uses an exhausted person that can provide results in about half an hour.
The test can be bought without a prescription and is intended for anyone 14 years of age or older, or an adult who can administer it to a child 2 years of age or older.
The test is able to detect a negative result for influenza A with more than 99 percent accuracy, and a positive result with more than 90 percent accuracy.
The test is 100 percent accurate for negative Covid-19 samples and more than 88 percent for positive results.
Jean Marzo, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, welcomed the test.
"Assuming the test performs well, it will help match the right drug to the disease" such as paxlobide for corona and tamiflu for flu, Marzo said.
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The test is the latest example of how the coronavirus pandemic has spurred efforts by the FDA and industry to provide more home tests.
And the agency is "eager to continue to promote greater access to at-home infectious disease testing to best support public health needs."
Marzo also stated that there may not be a real need for testing in the near future.
"The flu is actually gone right now," she said, but she cautioned that a second flu wave last spring made her realize that winter is not the end of the disease.
She added that she hopes the test will reduce a significant problem: inappropriate treatment of respiratory viruses with antibiotics, which are ineffective against viruses, and may cause resistance to antibiotic treatment.
"The hope is that primary care physicians will say, 'Oh, I don't need to use antibiotics.'"
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