I was hospitalized with pneumonia in August , I work in hospitals so I had about a 100% chance of having being exposed to H1N1 at some time.. I tested negative for H1N1 when hospitalized but since Denver has reported a tripling in pneumonia admissions this year I’d say prior exposure sure looks like a contributing factor. The symptoms and severity described sound real familiar... This ( H1N1 ) could be a catalyst for the normal flu to do some real damage this year.
MI
Accuracy of rapid H1N1 flu tests questioned
Video at link
Updated at 03:24 PM today
UNDATED — (12/01/09) — Some doctors are using rapid tests to check children for H1N1 flu. Sometimes, those tests don’t tell the whole story - with dangerous consequences.
Medical tests are supposed to help people, but this rapid flu test may have hurt nine-year-old Hayli Murphy.
Julie Murphy, Hayli Murphy’s mother: She was right there. She was on death’s door.
Back in September, Hayli first started showing signs of the flu, so her mother, Julie Murphy, took her to the emergency room.
Reporter: When you brought Hayli into the emergency room the first time, they did a test and they told you she doesn’t have the flu.
Julie Murphy: She’s fine. She doesn’t have the flu. She’s got a virus, high fevers. Take her home.
But at home, Hayli’s temperature climbed to 104 degrees. The next day, her mother took her back to the E-R, where again, the rapid test said she did not have the flu.
Reporter: You expect when a test says negative, that it’s negative.
Julie Murphy: That it’s negative, yeah
Reporter: Well, what did you find out?
Julie Murphy: I found out different.
The next day, Hayli was so sick her mother had to carry her into the emergency room. Hayli spent the next six weeks in intensive care, where doctors used a different, more reliable test. As it turns out, Hayli did have H1N1.
The test that was used on Hayli Murphy twice missed her flu. It’s relatively inexpensive and it’s wrong a lot.
Reporter: When these tests say you don’t have the flu, how often are they wrong?
Dr. Rhonda Medows, Georgia Dep’t. of Community Health: Anywhere from 90 to 30 percent of the time.
Dr. Medows warns doctors in her state not to use rapid flu tests because they’re wrong so often. “I’m telling them they don’t really need them. They need to focus more on their clinical exam. I don’t see the value.”
We contacted three big makers of rapid flu tests used in the United States. One gave us a statement.
The company BD said, “As with other rapid tests, doctors should be aware that a negative result does not fully exclude the possibility that the patient has influenza. Following a negative rapid test, physicians have the option to proceed to more advanced tests.”
Dr Roberto Monge was one of the first doctors who treated Hayli in Fort Myers, Florida.
Reporter: Twice Hayli received this rapid flu test and twice it was wrong.”
Dr. Monge: This test is not as good as we would like it to be.
Reporter: Do you think in Hayli’s case this test might have misled the doctors?
Dr. Monge: No, I don’t think so. This was handled very well.
Monge says doctors did not rely only on the rapid test, but also on a physical exam and their best judgment. All of which led them to believe she did not have H1N1.
Reporter: If you had listened to those tests.
Julie Murphy: Hayli would have been dead within the next 24 hours.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/health&id=7147447
here another article about false negative H1N1 tests
WA:
Many people who test negative may be sick with swine flu
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009
By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kennewick_pasco_richland/story/768496.html#
Tri-City health officials say people sick with flu symptoms most likely have swine flu — even if they tested negative for flu.
Dr. Larry Jecha, health officer for the Benton-Franklin Health District, said about 40 percent of people who have flulike symptoms but who test negative for flu using the Influenza A rapid test actually have the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu.
“That’s why we’re encouraging diagnosis with symptoms because it’s more accurate,” Jecha said Monday.
Flu tests require people being tested to have a certain amount of virus in their bodies, so the test won’t detect flu in the first few hours after symptoms appear or after a person has been sick for more than a day.
“We only have a 24-hour window where they are going to be positive,” Jecha said.
That’s why health officials have emphasized that people with flulike symptoms need treatment rather than testing.