COVID/Flu Testing

[razin786]

Hello,

I am a pharmacist in a retail setting but I wanted to post here for personal knowledge of a doctor's experience. We have received no tamiflu prescriptions from outpatient offices and hospitals since the start of our lockdown in march to now! We know the flu numbers are down, but I don't think anyone could have predicted a fall this low during influenza season. I am just trying to understand how testing is conducted to distinguish between COVID 19 and flu at your location.

1. Are all patients with flu like symptoms simultaneously swabbed for COVID 19 and Flu in your practice setting? Is your partner doing things differently than you (i.e. not swabbing simultaneously)?
2. Do you usually wait for a negative COVID test then conduct a flu test?

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[NITRAS]

We have aa 20%-25% positivity for COVID. We have a .3% positivity on any influenza on our PCR’s. I really think our sensitivity in our COVID tests isn’t as good as they tell us.

Tamiflu is weaksauce anyway . . I’m hoping that it will be better next year, praobably when we have a bad flu year.

 

[xffan624]

Hello,

I am a pharmacist in a retail setting but I wanted to post here for personal knowledge of a doctor's experience. We have received no tamiflu prescriptions from outpatient offices and hospitals since the start of our lockdown in march to now! We know the flu numbers are down, but I don't think anyone could have predicted a fall this low during influenza season. I am just trying to understand how testing is conducted to distinguish between COVID 19 and flu at your location.

1. Are all patients with flu like symptoms simultaneously swabbed for COVID 19 and Flu in your practice setting? Is your partner doing things differently than you (i.e. not swabbing simultaneously)?
2. Do you usually wait for a negative COVID test then conduct a flu test?

Numbers in the Southern Hemisphere (our predictor for flu cases) were down significantly as well this year. The same precautions that work for COVID work for the flu, only better, because flu transmissibility is more linked to symptomatic status. If people have flu like symptoms they're staying home because they're afraid they have COVID. Plus there's less gatherings or workplace transmission to begin with as many people are working from home.

 

[stickgirl390]

For our potential inpatient admissions, they do covid, if that’s neg they do flu, and if that’s neg they do all other common respiratory bugs.

not first hand knowledge btw, it’s just what my attending told us.

 

[ciestar]

We’ve been testing for both since it is included in a viral panel anyway. If that order isnt put in and just covid, we dont necessarily test for flu because they really does not change your management (at least that seems to be some attendings’ perspective)

Flu is just not as prevalent this year. That and Tamiflu is a drug people have been shying away from because the side effects suck.

 

[NickNaylor]

I work in a hospital setting. At this point, we are often doing a quad screen (COVID/flu/RSV/something else) simply due to a limited supply of COVID-only tests. I guess the quad tests are easier to obtain and in more ready supply. Obviously if someone had respiratory symptoms and a negative COVID test, I imagine they would be tested for flu.

As @ciestar mentioned, there is pretty clear evidence that the incidence of flu is down significantly, probably as a helpful side effect to all of the interventions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID. I’m not surprised that the utilization of flu-related care is down compared to previous years.