Swine Flu Test

New Swine Flu Test Approved By FDA

Emergency Authorization Used

by Beth Jones
July 28, 2009

NATIONAL/ SYRACUSE, N.Y.- For the third time since the swine flu outbreak began, the FDA has used an emergency use authorization, or E-U-A to approve a new diagnostic test.

Onondaga County Medical Director Dr. Choc Nguyen explains that regular flu and swine flu are actually not that different genetically, something the new test addresses on a higher level. "Both the seasonal flu and the swine flu are H1N1. The subtle difference in them would be a very tiny fragment, and now we have to focus on that fragment and try to amplify it."

Test Likely Will Not Be Used in Doctors' Offices

The new swine flu diagnostic test is a more complicated test, as it pinpoints a specific part of the virus's genetic material. This type of testing requires equipment and lab technicians not typically found in a regular doctors' office.

There also can be ancillary testing that goes along with the diagnostic test. Dr. Nguyen explains. "It is cumbersome because you have to run positive control, negative control, and you have to have some machinery to be able to do that."

The FDA says this test will enhance the country's capacity to test accurately for swine flu.