SAN ANTONIO – If you are coughing, sneezing or have a runny nose, doctors encourage you to get tested for the flu.
However, if you don’t want to go to the doctor’s office to get tested, at-home tests are available.
Baptist Health’s Dr. Ozil Ortiz said at-home tests can detect sub-strains A and B, and are fairly accurate.
“The good thing about these tests is ... if they do come back positive,” Ortiz said, “the likelihood that you have the disease is going to be very high.”
Compared to at-home COVID-19 tests, Ortiz said the flu tests are fairly simple, but there are two common mistakes to avoid.
“I think probably the biggest mistake might be contaminating the sample,” Ortiz said.
To prevent and reduce contamination, Ortiz said to wash your hands thoroughly, then proceed according to the instructions listed on or inside the test box.
Minimizing contact with nasal samples as well as materials included in the kit, such as the swab’s tip and the tubes that the swabs are inserted into, can help reduce risk of contamination.
“The second mistake is when people just swab around the outside of the nostril,” Ortiz said, “not really grabbing a good sample.”
In order to properly test at-home, Ortiz said patients should slowly and cautiously guide the swab into the nose in a straight path, instead of guiding the swab in an upward direction.
“It’s uncomfortable, but you do want to have to go somewhat straight,” Ortiz said. “Most of us want to go a little bit up and just twirl around, but the further you can go in straight down towards your nasal pharynx, swirl a couple of times, and then bring back out.”
After obtaining your sample, Ortiz said to continue following the listed steps and referring to the instructions to make sure you are reading the results correctly.
Antiviral medications like Tamiflu can help shorten how long you are sick, Ortiz said, and it could help keep your symptoms from becoming severe.
However, Ortiz also said antivirals can be expensive and usually need to be taken within a certain time frame in order to be most effective.
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