The flu is a contagious disease that can cause serious illness and even death, especially in the elderly. A flu swab is a method of sampling from a person’s nose and throat to determine if they have the flu and what type of flu it is. The swab is tested for the presence of the flu virus through viral culture or antigen tests.
Influenza, commonly called the flu, is a disease that can pass from person to person with relative ease and can infect large numbers of people. Although most people recover quickly from the flu, some people, such as the elderly, are at risk of serious illness and even death. The flu virus comes in many different forms, some of which are more dangerous than others. A flu swab, which is a method of sampling from a person, is a way for medical professionals to check whether a patient has the flu and, if so, what type of flu it is.
When the flu virus infects a person, it does so through the respiratory tract. The nose and throat are places where virus particles live and grow and produce symptoms such as runny nose, sore throat and cough. These locations are also the most accessible areas for a doctor to take samples from, and therefore a flu swab is most often from these parts of the body.
Influenza often spreads rapidly among populations, and for public health reasons, some government health agencies may wish to monitor the movement of the disease. Because the flu virus also mutates rapidly, regularly producing new versions of the flu, the type of flu a person has can also be important information for the public health system. Finally, a doctor may need to determine whether or not a person has the flu in order to follow an appropriate course of treatment.
Swabs are tools a doctor uses to sample an area, typically for the presence of microbes. They often have long handles with a soft, material or even plastic swab at the end, and are sterile, so that the test analyzes only the microbes present in the sampling area. During a flu swab procedure, the doctor typically inserts the end of the swab into the patient’s nose and rotates the flu swab so that it collects as much mucus as possible. Your doctor may insert the swab all the way through your nose into the upper part of your throat to sample that area if it appears to have more viral growth than inside the nose itself.
Doctors have several ways to test swabs for the presence of the flu virus. The test that takes days to a week to complete is viral culture, where virus particles are grown in the laboratory in human cells. The quickest tests include testing the sample for the presence of the genetic material in the flu or antigen tests. Antigens are molecules that are part of the virus that are specific to that virus, and some commercial tests contain antibodies that can identify the presence of antigens by binding to them. These types of tests can take less than an hour to complete, but may not be as accurate as viral culture.
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