(NewsNation) — With respiratory sickness spiking throughout the nation, there’s likelihood you’re sick to begin the brand new yr.
Possibly you will have the signs of COVID-19, prompting you to take a check or two that you just acquired free of charge from the federal authorities in 2023. It’s additionally doable you’re testing unfavourable.
Whereas there’s a comparatively apparent cause why your check is unfavourable (extra on that in a second), there’s one other much less apparent chance you might be overlooking.
You could recall listening to that a few of the COVID exams shipped out by the federal government in October had been already past their printed best-by date. A few of these exams had expiration dates for February 2023, an entire eight months earlier than they arrived in mailboxes.
Nonetheless, the Meals and Drug Administration mentioned the exams weren’t truly expired, noting that it had prolonged the expiration dates for greater than a dozen at-home COVID check kits. So the aforementioned kits that had been initially set to run out in February 2023 had been as a substitute listed as being efficient till February 2024.
As you might have guessed, COVID exams aren’t thought-about efficient past their prolonged expiration dates. Which means in the event you’re testing unfavourable, it may very well be that your check is outdated. The FDA beforehand warned that expired COVID exams shouldn’t be used as a result of the components they’re product of might “degrade, or break down, over time” and provides “inaccurate or invalid check outcomes.”
Checks you might have in your toilet cupboard, just like the iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Fast Check or the BinaxNOW, are amongst these with prolonged expiration dates. For iHealth kits with printed expiration dates starting from February 2023 to September 2023, the prolonged dates have since handed. BinaxNOW kits with printed dates previous to June 2023 have additionally handed their prolonged expiration dates.
You’ll find the total listing of COVID exams with prolonged expiration dates on the FDA’s web site.
In case your check package has not expired, and also you’re nonetheless testing unfavourable, you might simply have a distinct respiratory sickness.
“In case you are feeling symptomatic and also you check unfavourable for COVID-19, often the most definitely cause is you’re contaminated with one thing else apart from COVID-19,” mentioned Dr. Andrew Pekosz, a virologist and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being, throughout a media briefing.
In any case, two different respiratory viruses, influenza and RSV, are beginning to flow into at excessive ranges in lots of states, and all three sicknesses have overlapping signs.
However Pekosz went on to say {that a} unfavourable check doesn’t actually change a lot so far as subsequent steps go.
“If you happen to’re feeling sick, there actually ought to be no distinction whether or not you’re testing optimistic for COVID-19, flu or RSV,” he mentioned. “If you happen to’re feeling sick, keep dwelling, care for your self. If you happen to’re in a high-risk group, search medical consideration so you will get some recommendation as to what to do. There are loads of viruses on the market which might be inflicting comparable spectrums of ailments. So in the event you’re feeling sick, you might be sick.”
The CDC additionally notes {that a} unfavourable COVID check doesn’t fully imply you’re freed from an infection. Even when the virus shouldn’t be detected, it might nonetheless be there in small quantities. The CDC went on to say that you might have one other sickness it’s worthwhile to get examined for, and that you need to seek the advice of your well being care supplier if in case you have questions on check outcomes or your signs.
Jeremy Tanner contributed to this report.
