The best way to prevent contracting the flu is by getting vaccinated each year but good health habits like washing your hands often can help reduce the spread of the germs and prevent illnesses like the flu. There are also numerous flue antiviral drugs that can be taken to prevent the flu.
It will also be best to:
· Avoid close contact with people who are healthy to prevent them from getting sick as well.
· Stay home, get some sleep and take plenty of fluids.
· Taking antiviral drugs
Diagnostic tests available for influenza include viral culture, serology, rapid antigen testing, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence assays, and rapid molecular assays
The most common are called “rapid influenza diagnostic tests.” These tests can provide results in 30 minutes or less. Unfortunately, the ability of these tests to detect the flu can vary greatly. Therefore, you could still have the flu, even though your rapid test result is negative. In addition to rapid tests, there are several more accurate and sensitive flu tests available that must be performed in specialized laboratories, such as those found in hospitals or state public health laboratories. All of these tests require that a health care provider swipe the inside of your nose or the back of your throat with a swab and then send the swab for testing. These tests do not require a blood sample.
The sample should be taken for all those patients that fill the case definition, applying the sample selection criterion, to the first 10 cases and then 1 in 10, until the virus is confirmed. The technique of choice is Nasopharyngeal Swab or a nasopharyngeal aspirate of preference within the first 3 days of onset of symptoms.
