Influenza species and subtypes circulation among hospitalized patients in Laleh hospital during two influenza seasonal (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) using a multiplex Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction

Azhar, Iman Rezaee; Mohraz, Minoo; Mardani, Masoud; Tavakoli, Mohammad Ali; Afshar, Amin Ehteshami; Zamani, Mohammad; Sadeghpoor, Simin; Safari, Saeid; Dadashpoor, Roozbeh; Rezaee, Mahsa; Shirvani, Fariba; Azimi, Shohreh; Heydarifard, Zahra; Ranjbar, Hamidreza Hagh; Lotfi, Amir Hossain; Mosadegh, Farhad; Hashemnejad, Farhad; Jazayeri, Seyed Mohammad

The length of stay was shorter for flupositive than for flu-negative subjects, implying the usefulness of rapid diagnosis for physicians to make decisions such as discontinuation of antibiotics and prompt patient discharge. [10] [11] [12] [13] A majority of flu-positive patients had either pulmonary or heart disease backgrounds, in line with their ages. Most often older adults or those with chronic pulmonary, cardiac, and metabolic or other disease have a more complicated influenza illness with subsequent secondary bacterial infections. 2,14-16 Different specimen types have been proposed by different for influenza virus detection. Flocked nasal and/or throat swabs or gargling are the best choices in this regard. 17, 18 However, the frequency of positive results decreased from nasopharyngeal (65%) to throat swab (30%) to sputum (5%) samples. This finding suggests that the molecular influenza tests show different sensitivity depending on the specimen types, being the difference in favor of nasopharyngeal swabs.