Clinical Usage of Influenza Rapid Test During Influenza Season

Objective: Influenza A and B are important viral pathogens causing respiratory infection epidemics potentially with high morbidity and mortality.Herein we aimed to investigate clinical usage of influenza rapid test in clinical practice. Method: Children tested for nasopharyngeal influenza rapid test between September 2018- February 2019 were included in this study.Influenza rapid test was applied to pediatric patients patients admitted to paediatric infectious disease policlinic regardless of their vaccination status, and results were achieved in 10 minutes. Results: Of 265 (56.5%) male, totally 469 children, with a median age of 51 months ( 23 days-202 months) were included in this study. From 469 samples tested from patients with symptoms of repiratory tract infections, 107 (22.8%) was positive for influenza A, 20 (4.3%) was positive for influenza B, 342 was negative. Totally 127 patients, 64 (50.4%) male with a median age of 53 months ( 23 days-202 months) were tested positive for influenza. Underlying chronic disease was detected in 21 (16.5%) of patients. Fever lasting for more than 5 days was statistically significantly more common in influenza B (63.2%) positive patients compared to influenza A (15.2%) positive patients (p<0.001). Conclusions: Influenza rapid test is recommended to be used in clinical practice during influenza season, in COVID pandemic also, due to shorter duration of results,being pratical, and cost –effective.