Stanford University infectious disease doctor Abraar Karan has seen a lot of patients with runny noses, fevers, and irritated eyes lately.
Jun 11 2024KFF Health News Such symptoms could signal allergies, covid, or a cold. This year, there's another suspect, bird flu — but there's no way for most doctors to know.
Scientifically speaking, many diagnostic laboratories could detect the virus. However, red tape, billing issues, and minimal investment are barriers to quickly ramping up widespread availability of testing. At the moment, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized only the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's bird flu test, which is used only for people who work closely with livestock.
Federal officials are offering $75 to dairy workers who agree to be tested for bird flu. Advocates say the payments aren't enough to protect workers from lost wages and health care costs if they test positive. The FDA lagged, too. It didn't authorize tests from diagnostic laboratories outside of the CDC until late February 2020.
Doctors, however, are unlikely to request influenza A tests for patients with respiratory symptoms outside of flu season, in part because health insurers may not cover them except in limited circumstances, said Alex Greninger, assistant director of the clinical virology laboratory at the University of Washington.
In the meantime, novel tests that detect the H5N1 virus, specifically, could be brought up to speed. The CDC's current test isn't very sensitive or simple to use, researchers said. But the American Clinical Laboratory Association has asked the FDA and the CDC for clarity on the new rule. "It's slowing things down because it's adding to the confusion about what is allowable," said Susan Van Meter, president of the diagnostic laboratory trade group.
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