Home testing for flu

Transcript: AMA Queensland President, Dr Maria Boulton, ABC Brisbane, Breakfast with Craig and Loretta, Tuesday 9 May 2023

Subjects: COVID and influenza testing, antiviral treatments

LORETTA RYAN:   The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved a new tool in the fight against winter illnesses, rapid antigen tests. You know what they are -

CRAIG ZONCA:   The RATs.

LORETTA RYAN:   - that you can use, whether you have COVID-19, the flu or RSV. They'll tell you which one is which.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Dr Maria Boulton is the President of the Australian Medical Association here in Queensland. Maria, good morning to you.

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Good morning, Craig and Loretta.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Are you recommending these RAT tests at all?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   I think they do have a place, especially with people who are high risk of those illnesses. So if you are at high risk of having severe COVID or severe flu, and you may be eligible for the antiviral medications, it is really, really important to ensure that you do test. Because if you do test positive, then you're eligible for those medications.

However, they're not 100 per cent. So if you have someone who, for example, is immunosuppressed and they have COVID or flu symptoms - and they're very difficult to tell apart - and the RAT test is negative, then we ask them to see their doctor for a PCR test. But they're really good in letting you know what you have. At the end of the day, if you are sick, stay home – that’s really, really important as well. But I think our concern is for the people who are at high risk of those diseases, that they quickly know what they have so that they can start treatment.

LORETTA RYAN:   But what do we know about these new tests? I mean, they've been approved, so they're not really out yet, are they? But how do they work? Are they the same as the RATs we know from COVID?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah, it's very similar to the RATs we know from COVID. The TGA has approved two brands and they are nasal swabs. So yeah, it feels like sometimes you're swabbing your brain when you're using those, but they're the ones you insert that into your nose and you have an answer within 10, 15 minutes. But it's very reliant on your technique and at what stage of the disease you're in, and they're not 100 per cent. So if you still feel that you have may have COVID or the flu, it's important that you reach out to your GP.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Flu's obviously been a part of our life, influenza, year-on-year, why are we now only getting a rapid antigen test for influenza?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah, that's a really brilliant question and I guess it's because of all the innovation around COVID. What happens during pandemics is that we get all these new inventions. With the flu we've always had a swab that takes a few hours to get back, that people sometimes get done if they're sick, but this is just part of the innovation that comes with pandemics.

LORETTA RYAN:   At the moment though, people have probably still got RATs that they've stocked up on and they keep buying. A RAT at the moment won't show just a flu, it'll only show COVID, won't it?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yes, correct. It will only show COVID. And I do encourage people to look at the expiry date. If, like me, you bought a bundle last year, I just encourage you to have a look at the expiry date, make sure they're still in date.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Yeah. That's a really good point because the ones that we have in the cupboard are very close to being unusable. Dr Maria Boulton is with you, the President of the Australian Medical Association here in Queensland. We've heard the case numbers are increasing. From your perspective, in your GP practice, is that what you're seeing day to day, Maria?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yes. It seems like the whole of our community's back at daycare. You know, when you have kids at daycare you get everything under the sun, and that’s what it feels like at my practice. We're especially seeing a lot of flu, Influenza-A in particular. We're still seeing a lot of COVID. We know that there's been over 9,000 cases of flu in Queensland. Sadly, we've had eight people pass away, and we're still getting upwards of 3,000 cases of COVID a week. So it is quite significant. And I was thinking yesterday as I was walking into the clinic with these winds, they seem like Ekka weather, don't they?

CRAIG ZONCA:   Ekka westerlies, yeah.

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Yeah, so we're probably going to start getting a few people in who have asthma symptoms as well, because asthma tends to happen in this type of weather when there's a lot of respiratory illness around and when the cold winds start blowing.

CRAIG ZONCA:   They do. Just before you go, Doctor, I'm interested, what's been the take-up like, say within your patient group, for the flu vaccine so far this year?

DR MARIA BOULTON:   Within our clinic, it's been very good. The flu vaccine has been around for a long time and people know it quite well, and people are either booking for a flu clinic or just having one when they come in. But we're a little bit concerned, when you look at the statistics, it's not where it should be. So for example, only a third of people over the age of 65 have had a flu vaccine, and when you look at the six months to five-year age group, which is another very vulnerable group, only 4.7 per cent have been vaccinated. So we're at the start of the flu season. The difference this year is that it's an early flu season, so it's really important that people go and book for those flu vaccines early because it's around already.

CRAIG ZONCA:   Always appreciate your time, Maria. Thanks so much for taking the call this morning.