Is it COVID-19? Flu? Rapid home tests could allow you to and your doctor choose a treatment plan

A scratchy, sore throat, a persistent fever, a pounding head, and an unpleasant cough—these symptoms all scream upper respiratory illness. But which one?

Many of the viruses that cause upper respiratory tract infections, equivalent to: Influenza A or B and the Virus that causes COVID-19 They all use similar tactics. They goal the identical areas in your body – primarily the upper and lower respiratory tract – and this common battlefield triggers an identical response out of your immune system. Overlapping symptoms – fever, cough, fatigue, pain – make it difficult to find out the underlying cause.

Now, rapid at-home tests can concurrently determine whether someone has COVID-19 or the flu. We thank, partially, the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics, or RADx, programthe Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization seven rapid tests for at home that may differentiate between COVID-19, influenza A and influenza B.

Our team in Atlanta – consisting of Biomedical engineersClinicians and researchers at Emory University, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Institute of Technology – is a component of the RADx Test verification core. We work closely with other institutions and authorities to find out whether and the way well COVID-19 and influenza diagnostics work and test the tests effectively. Our center has worked with almost every COVID and flu diagnosis available in the marketplace, and our data has helped determine the instructions you could find in lots of home testing kits available in the marketplace.

Although no test is ideal, with the ability to now test for specific viruses at home when symptoms occur can assist patients and their doctors create appropriate treatment plans more quickly.

A brand new era of home testing

Traditionally, identifying the virus that causes the symptoms of upper respiratory tract disease required a visit to a clinic or hospital by a trained physician to gather the viruses nasopharyngeal sample. It involves inserting an extended, fiber-tipped swab, which looks like a skinny cotton swab, into one in every of your nostrils to the back of your nose and throat to gather virus-containing secretions. The sample is then often sent to a laboratory for evaluation, although it may well take hours to days for results to be available.

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the flexibility to make use of over-the-counter tests to diagnose respiratory diseases at home has change into a reality. These tests used a much gentler and fewer invasive nasal swab and may be carried out by anyone at any time and in their very own home. However, these tests were only designed to diagnose COVID-19 and couldn’t differentiate between other kinds of diseases.

Since then, researchers have developed over-the-counter multiplex tests that may screen for multiple respiratory infection at a time. In 2023 Pfizer's Lucira test was the primary home diagnostic test for COVID-19 and influenza to receive emergency use authorization.

What are multiplex rapid tests?

There are two essential types of at-home COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu combination tests: molecular tests B. PCR, which detect genetic material of the virus, and antigen tests – commonly known as rapid tests – which detect proteins, so-called antigens, of the virus.

Most over-the-counter COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu tests in the marketplace are antigen tests. She detect the presence of antigens in your nasal secretions, which function a biological signature for a selected virus. If viral antigens are present, it means you might be probably infected.

To detect these antigens, rapid tests have paper-like strips coated with specially developed antibodies that work like molecular Velcro and only stick with a selected antigen. Scientists design and manufacture special strips to detect certain viral antigens, equivalent to those belonging to influenza A, influenza B or the virus that causes COVID-19.

The antibodies for these viral targets are applied to the test strip, and if an individual's nasal sample accommodates viral proteins applied to the test strip, a line appears specifically for that virus.

Advance rapid antigen tests

Like all technologies, rapid antigen tests have limitations.

Compared to laboratory-based PCR tests, which might detect the presence of small amounts of pathogens by amplifying them, antigen tests are often less sensitive than PCR and will miss an infection in some cases.

All at-home COVID-19 and COVID-19/flu antigen tests are approved for repeated use. That means if someone is experiencing symptoms — or someone has been exposed to COVID-19 but has no symptoms — and gets a negative result on their first test, they need to take the test again 48 hours later.

Another limitation of rapid antigen tests is that they’re currently only designed to check for COVID-19, influenza A and influenza B. Currently available over-the-counter tests are unable to detect illness attributable to pathogens that resemble these viruses and cause similar symptoms, equivalent to adenovirus or streptococcus.

Because multiplex texts can detect multiple different viruses, they may also produce results which might be more complex to interpret than tests for individual viruses. This can increase the chance to a patient misinterpret their resultsconfusing one infection with one other.

Researchers are actively developing much more sophisticated tests which might be more sensitive while also with the ability to detect a broader range of viruses and even bacterial infections. Scientists are also exploring the potential of using saliva samples for testing bacterial or viral infections.

In addition, scientists are conducting research Integration of multiplex tests with smartphones for quick at-home diagnosis and reporting to healthcare providers. This may increase the accessibility of those tests for individuals with visual impairments, low dexterity, or other difficulties performing and interpreting tests at home.

Faster and more accurate diagnoses result in more targeted and effective treatment plans, potentially reducing unnecessary antibiotic use and improving patient outcomes. The ability to quickly detect and track outbreaks may also enable health authorities to raised contain the spread of infectious diseases.