Express test to detect and differentiate between COVID-19 and Influenza A/B
The most comfortable rapid test for determining the most dangerous respiratory infections
A special soft sample pad is used for taking sample
The test kit is a 2-part "pen" which needs to be assembled in accordance with the IFU
Ability to confirm or exclude two of the most dangerous raspiratory pathogens
High accuracy and sensitivity of diagnostics
Despite generally available reports confirming Coronavirus and Influenza having similar symptoms, it is essential to differentiate between these two pathogens due to the following reasons:
Influenza is caused by multiple strains of the virus
All types of flu—the most common of which is influenza A—are caused by an influenza virus. There are hundreds of strains that mutate often. For example, influenza A comes in two subtypes and many strains. Beyond that, influenza B, and even C and D, also exist.
Symptoms start after 1-4 days after exposure. Typical symptoms include:
• Fever or chills (not everyone with the flu will experience this)
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or body aches
• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Vomiting and diarrhea (more common in children than adults)
COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus which has various mutations. It's part of a larger family of coronaviruses.
Symptoms start after 1 to 14 days after exposure. Typical symptoms include:
• Fever
• Dry cough
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Sore throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Body aches
• Diarrhea
• Loss of taste or smell
Approximately one out of every six people with COVID-19 will become seriously ill.
While the virus that causes COVID-19 and flu viruses are thought to spread in similar ways, the virus that causes COVID-19 is generally more contagious than flu viruses. Also, COVID-19 has been observed to have more superspreading events than flu. This means the virus that causes COVID-19 can quickly and easily spread to a lot of people and result in continual spreading among people as time progresses.
Most people with flu are contagious for about 1 day before they show symptoms.
Older children and adults with flu appear to be most contagious during the first 3-4 days of their illness, but many people remain contagious for about 7 days. Infants and people with weakened immune systems can be contagious for even longer.
On average, people can begin spreading the virus 2-3 days before their symptoms begin, but infectiousness peaks 1 day before their symptoms begin.
On average, people can continue to spread the virus another 8 days after their symptoms began
People of age 65+ years old and people with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, chronic kidney disease, liver disorders, blood disorders, Neurologic and neurodevelopment conditions, obesity, smokers, have similar high risks in both COVID and Flu.
However, certain differences are there:
• Children younger than 2 years old
• Asthma
• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
• Sickle cell disease or thalassemia
• Solid organ or blood stem cell transplant
• Substance use disorders
• Tuberculosis
• Physical inactivity
• Cancer
Clearly, the flu and COVID-19 have quite a bit of symptom overlap.
Those will include
• Pneumonia
• Cardiac injury (for example, heart attacks and stroke)
• Multiple-organ failure (respiratory failure, kidney failure, shock)
• Worsening of chronic medical conditions (involving the lungs, heart, or nervous system or diabetes)
• Inflammation of the heart, brain, or muscle tissues
• Secondary infections (bacterial or fungal infections that can occur in people who have already been infected with flu or COVID-19)
COVID-19 causes more severe disease than seasonal influenza. The reason? Many people around the world have built up immunity to seasonal flu strains.
But since COVID-19 is quite new, no one has immunity. As a result, infection is more likely, and some of those infections will result in severe illness.
Moderate:
• Sinus infection
• Ear infection
Serious:
• Pneumonia
• Heart inflammation (myocarditis)
• Brain inflammation (encephalitis)
• Muscle tissue inflammation (rhabdomyolysis)
• Multi-organ failure
• Sepsis
• Worsening of chronic conditions
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome
• Kidney failure
• Cardiovascular injuries
• Cytokine storm
Some people that had COVID-19 can go on to develop
post-COVID conditions or multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS)
A person with influenza should start treatment with antiviral agents (such as oseltamivir) as quickly as possible. Oseltamivir has no activity against SARS-CoV-2 and only works for Influenza.
Covid patients should receive medicines like corticosteroids, remdesivir, in sever cases immunomodulatory therapies, such as interleukin-6 inhibitors should be applied. The co-occurrence of community-acquired secondary bacterial pneumonia and COVID-19 appears to be infrequent, therefore antibiotics will be helpful.
It is possible to have infection of COVID-19 and Influenza at the same time. To reduce the risk of infection or development of serious complications people should have vaccines. The vaccines are different and cannot replace each other.
When influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 are cocirculating in the community, SARS-CoV-2 testing and influenza testing should be performed in all patients who are hospitalized with an acute respiratory illness
Most of the commercially available tests use nasopharyngeal swab which causes strong discomfort and can injure the mucous membrane. This test uses nasal samples thus the discomfort is totally excluded
The test is so simple that a patient can do it him- or herself. After collecting the sample the pen is inserted into the container with extraction buffer, and the result is read within 15 minutes. No need for dropping of extracted material, human error is excluded to the maximum extent
High sensitivity (>95% for COVID, >95% for Influenza A and >93% for Influenza B) and specificity of the test make it a reliable tool in the diagnostics of COVID-19 and Influenza A/B pathogens
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We believe in long-term partnerships with other like-minded businesses, people and whole communities with a view to creating unique values for the benefit of everyone.
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Email:
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