People Hospitalized For Flu Should Be Tested For Bird Flu Within 24 Hours, CDC Says

Reuters (1/16, Douglas, Polansek, Aboulenein, Sunny) reports, “People hospitalized for flu should be tested for bird flu within 24 hours, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday, in an expansion of the agency’s efforts to tackle increasing infections in humans.” The CDC’s “advisory is intended to prevent delays in identifying human cases of avian influenza A viruses amid high levels of seasonal influenza.” Patients who are influenza A-positive, “particularly those in an intensive care unit, should be tested ideally within 24 hours of hospitalization to identify the viral subtype and determine whether they have bird flu, the agency said.” The Washington Post (1/16, Sun) reports, “Any hospitalized patients, especially those in intensive care units, with suspected seasonal influenza or bird flu should also be started on the antiviral treatment Tamiflu [oseltamivir phosphate] as soon as possible without waiting for results of influenza testing, the...advisory said.”