US to expand new virus testing to people with flu symptoms
Posted on 2020-02-14 | The Nouvelliste
People sick in the United States with flu symptoms but tested negative for influenza will be tested for the new coronavirus that appeared in China, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Friday.
“The CDC has started working with five public health labs in the United States to operate their influenza surveillance network, so that we can test people with flu-like symptoms and detect the new coronavirus”, explained Nancy Messonnier, director of respiratory diseases at CDC.
These laboratories are located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York. “This is just the beginning, we will have more sites in the coming weeks to create national surveillance,” said Ms. Messonnier.
They will test for the new coronavirus the specimens which tested negative for influenza.
The senior health official said that seasonal flu is currently peaking in the United States. In December, type B flu dominated, but influenza A (H1N1) recently experienced “a sharp increase,” she said.
“At this point in this season, we estimate that there have been 26 million flu patients, 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths from the flu, including children,” added the official.
14 children died last week due to flu viruses, and 92 for the 2019-2020 season, according to the CDC website.
Concerning the coronavirus, the United States has 15 confirmed cases. More than 600 people from China remained in quarantine on Friday, almost all of whom were repatriated by the United States government.
Nancy Messonnier explained that a negative test for the virus does not necessarily indicate that the person was not infected, since the virus can take several days to become detectable.
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