Summer is nearly over and it’s almost back to school time.
Yes, it’s good to get the kids out of the house and back at school, but there is one issue that you need to remember.
As kids get together in close proximity in a classroom, they WILL pass around upper respiratory infections.
So what do you do if your child has an upper respiratory infection? Most of the time you will just treat their symptoms and they have a few days at home. But what about when you determine that they need to go to the doctor? How will your doctor know what to treat? Will they do testing to determine the type of infection? Or will they treat “empirically”? (That’s a fancy word for saying they will treat is for what they think it is.)
Many doctors have the ability in their office to test for one or two different infectious agents of the respiratory tract. But that may not give them the full picture of what is going on with your child. 4path laboratory offers a comprehensive panel for the detection of 20 different common upper respiratory diseases. This includes both viruses and bacterial agents. It’s very important to know what the infection is…to help your doctor select the best treatment. Antibiotics do NOT work for viral infections. Not all anti-viral agents work on all virus infections. To treat with a drug that isn’t indicated for the type of infection that your child has can cause a variety of problems.
- The treatment won’t provide any benefit to your child.
- The treatment may result in your child not receiving the correct treatment.
- The treatment will expose your child to side effects of the drug when there is no benefit.
- You (or your insurance) will be paying for a treatment that doesn’t provide any benefit.
- Such treatment may be contributing to the development of drug-resistant infectious agents
So what’s a parent to do?
Insist on comprehensive testing for the most common agents by using the 4path Resp-22 panel.
This is a simple collection by the doctor, using a small “q-tip” like swab from your child’s nose. Once the swab is received in the laboratory, using Real-Time PCR Molecular Technology, the sample is tested for the 20 agents in the panel. Results are quickly available, typically in a few hours (as opposed to the other methods which could take 5 days or more). Testing is highly sensitive (i.e. it is very sensitive to detecting the presence of the organism) and highly specific (i.e. it isn’t “confused” by other organisms).
Benefits of this testing:
- Easy single swab collection
- Rapid results
- Highly sensitive and specific
- Can detect MULTIPLE infections of these organisms, when present
- Helps your doctor select the right treatment for your child
Your physician will need to have the proper collection kits on-hand in their office to collect this test. Why don’t you make them aware of this advanced testing for all of their patients?
Offices: Call 877.828.2292 to have a representative provide you with the necessary supplies so that you can provide this important test for your patients with upper respiratory infections!
Please note:
- This test can be performed on ANY patient of ANY age and setting, including Nursing Homes, Urgent Care Centers, Occupational Health Clinics, Oncology, just to name a few.
- Courier pickup and delivery is available for select geographic areas. FedEx delivery is available for remainder of locations.
- This test is available in Illinois.
