(Nov. 9) -- More and more research is showing that "rapid influenza diagnostic tests" used in doctors' offices and hospitals often fail to determine whether the patient has H1N1, reports USA Today.
The test, which checks a sample swabbed from the nose for the influenza A virus, has results in 30 minutes. But scientists found that a third of patients hospitalized with the virus in California had negative results on the rapid test.
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10 Swine Flu Facts
1. No cause for panic: So far, hospitalizations and deaths from swine flu seem to be lower than the average seen for seasonal flu, and the virus hasn't dramatically mutated. Still, more people are susceptible to swine flu and U.S. health officials are worried because it hung in so firmly here during the summer.
Ricardo Moraes, AP
Ricardo Moraes, AP
Another test that is more specific and takes six to eight hours found that the patients did, in fact, have H1N1.
The tests can help doctors decide whether to treat patients who fall into the high-risk group with antiviral medications.
So how do doctors know if it's swine flu? Because there has been so little seasonal influenza yet this year, if a patient has flu-like symptoms, "it's H1N1 until proven otherwise, almost," Dartmouth pediatrician Hank Bernstein told the paper.
For more on this story, go to USA Today.
