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Tag Archives: Influenza

The who, what, and when of respiratory virus testing

November 2022—In mid-October, flu was picking up, with high levels of activity in Texas, Georgia, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and New York. Elsewhere, it was still on the lower side, with less known about what was to come but plans in place. And questions, too, about laboratory testing as it relates to SARS-CoV-2, “which is going to be a challenge,” says David Peaper, MD, PhD, D(ABMM), a member of the CAP Microbiology Committee.

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A wait-and-watch season of respiratory viruses

October 2022—Influenza incidence and what it will mean for testing in this respiratory virus season is a wild card, as is how SARS-CoV-2 will evolve. In early September, SARS-CoV-2 prevalence was declining in parts of the United States. “And if you believe in the theory of viral interference,” says Michelle Tabb, PhD, chief scientific officer at DiaSorin Molecular, “it’s leaving the door wide open right now for something else to step in. We’ll see if that’s RSV, or flu A, or if it’s a new COVID variant.”

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Flu mounts COVID’s bustling stage

October 2020—Barely a half year into the pandemic’s presence in the United States, history has already begun pressing down on SARS-CoV-2 testing. Like an actor playing Hamlet, it’s been difficult not to feel the burden of past performances when preparing for the months ahead. Now, at the start of fall, that also means readying for the return of influenza. Here, even longer experience has shown that each new season is, indeed, a new season. As in the theater world itself these days, planning for what lies ahead feels tempest-tossed. Plans are being laid. Discussions continue. Creativity abounds, and hard work persists. The season shall unfold. But no one knows how it will look until the curtain—or whatever is passing for one this year—goes up. Poor Hamlet is troubled enough to fill the stage for hours—it is, in fact, Shakespeare’s longest play. Yet he’s just one man. Laboratories this fall are absorbing the slings and arrows of two roles simultaneously. Can they prepare for both parts (think Richard II and III sparring on the same stage) with confidence?

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Labs size up options for unpredictable flu

December 2019—There aren’t good flu seasons; there are just varying degrees of how bad they are. That’s the message the CDC wants people to hear, says Lynnette Brammer, MPH, lead for the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team. It’s what laboratories know well and why platforms, panels, and prescribing patterns are top of mind.

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Rapid PCR rules as labs ready flu arsenal

December 2018—With the memory of the 2017–2018 “high-severity” influenza season fresh in mind—49 million cases, 960,000 hospitalizations, a marginally effective vaccine, 79,000 deaths—clinical laboratories have been bracing for the customary annual surge in emergency room, outpatient clinic, and physician office influenza test orders. Although flu admissions have been rising somewhat, it is too soon to know how the season will play out, but laboratories are hoping for a season closer to average. Avoiding a repeat of last year’s travails—lengthy turnaround times, supply shortages, and the need to triage patients for testing—is a must, many laboratory directors say. “We had difficulty keeping up with last year’s demand. It was extremely time-consuming,” says Mary Kay O’Connor, national laboratory director at Summit Health Management, the management arm of the Summit Medical Group, an 800-provider practice on the East Coast.

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Labs take stock of surprising flu season

March 2018—In a severe flu season that started early, laboratories faced unprecedented test volumes, used new testing platforms, and negotiated vendor supply shortages. When laboratory staff at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock began seeing a rising number of requests for respiratory tests, and five positive flu results,

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In flu season management, POC molecular to the fore

May 2017—Stacked against some of the nation’s previous bouts with influenza—such as the 2014–15 season—the 2016–17 flu season didn’t break records for drama. To be sure, every flu season is different, and regional variation was prominent. In Central Texas, some outbreaks appeared to start later than usual, but the dominant viruses were the same as last year’s—H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B—says Bob Fader, PhD, chief of the virology and microbiology laboratory at Baylor Scott & White Health, Temple, Tex. The strains identified were a good match with this year’s trivalent and quadrivalent vaccine. Testing volume was up, as were positive PCRs.

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FDA, CDC, and tests steer flu Dx into new season

December 2013—What Soren Kierkegaard said about life applies just as well to flu seasons: They are understood backwards, but they have to be lived forwards. They’re not easy to forecast. And perhaps that’s one reason why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just announced a “Predict the Influenza Season Challenge,” offering $75,000 to the competitor who most successfully predicts the timing, peak, and intensity of the 2013–14 flu season using social media data.

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Keeping an eye on H7N9, and learning from the past

June 2013—What began as a trickle of reports in China earlier this year swelled into a flood of patients with grave flu-like symptoms. Each time, PCR assays returned the same result: unsubtypable influenza A. Amid a rising mortality rate, viral samples were sent to China’s national laboratories for sequencing analyses. On March 31, Chinese officials posted the results to an open-access database and alerted the World Health Organization to a public health emergency of international concern: The H7N9 epidemic had begun.

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Rx for optimizing rapid flu test performance

January 2013—With the arrival of another flu season—this one early and intense—rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) are once again occupying many laboratory directors’ minds. But although laboratories have found RIDTs useful for the last decade, evaluations of the test kits’ performance have been limited to manufacturers’ product inserts and a few small-scale studies. Like swing shift and day shift workers in the hospital, RIDTs have not been brought together for an assessment side by side.

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