1. Home>
2. Reader Remarks

Reader Remarks on:

H1N1 Rapid Tests: Poor Sensitivity

• Hello
• Reality of the pandemic
• A response from summary author, Stephen G. Baum, MD
• Sensitivity of Rapid antigen test for H1N1

Hello

A Zab, 15 Oct 2009 2:56 AM EST

Competing interests: None declared

Is this saying that the H1N1 really is not a pandemic because "all" of the testing that has been done is bogus? Wrong? False?

back to top

Reality of the pandemic

Terence Seemungal, 17 Oct 2009 9:16 PM EST

Competing interests: None declared

If the rapid tests are unreliable and the PCR for H1N1 difficult and subject to freeze-thaw errors what is the microbial evidence of the pandemic?

back to top

A response from summary author, Stephen G. Baum, MD

Stephen G. Baum, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Associate Editor, Journal Watch Infectious Diseases, 28 Oct 2009 10:48 AM EST

Competing interests: None declared

There have been two comments/questions from readers challenging the concept that we are really experiencing an H1N1 pandemic, given the finding that rapid tests are so unreliable for diagnosing this infection.

Rapid tests are developed primarily for use in physicians’ offices or other ambulatory healthcare settings. They are meant to help clinicians make on-the-spot decisions about the cause of an infection — the first step in determining whether therapy is available and should be initiated. These tests were never designed to be (and are not) used for epidemiologic decision-making. Organizations like the WHO and the CDC use viral culture and nucleic acid–based testing (PCR) to definitively determine the cause of outbreaks. Those are the tests that have been used to plot the course of the many H1N1 outbreaks that in aggregate dictate the pandemic designation. Yes, we have a true pandemic of H1N1, with outbreaks in many parts of the world simultaneously.

back to top

Sensitivity of Rapid antigen test for H1N1

Abid Ahmed, Jeddah Diabetes and Hypertension Care Center, Jeddah, 2 Nov 2009 11:14 PM EST

Competing interests: None declared

This affirms the CDC statistical analysis that annual winter/seasonal influenza is more pandemic than h1n1 infection as i believe that as symptoms of respiratory viral pathogens are more or less the same, with the current hysteria of h1n1 infection, false positive result of the rapid viral antigen test bound to overstimate the cases of h1n1 and present out of proportion to what the real scenario exist. This can be the real scenario in the third world where medical practice is more commercial than ethical. At the present state a more sensitive and economical diagnostic test is the need of the hour beside the vaccine.

back to top

Your Remark: