IOWA CITY, Iowa -
Once you provide a specimen for your health care provider to determine if you have the H1N1 Influenza, it is sent to the University of Iowa for testing.
Program Manager for Molecular Diagnostics Lucy DesJardin at the Hygienic Laboratory says specimens are tested there to see if it is the common seasonal flu. It is prepared for testing which takes about 2 ½ hours. The actual test takes a little over 1 ½ hours. If another genetic make-up is detected, then it is sent to the Center for Disease Control to determine if it is the H1N1 Influenza strain.
DesJardin says this new strain is something to which humans don't have an immunity. "What's going on now is that there is a strain that has some genetic characteristic to what's found in swine and what's found in birds and what's found in humans and that particular strain, however it got into the humans, is now able to transmit itself person to person spread."
Right now, the CDC has the testing kits for the H1N1 Influenza. They will be sending those kits to the Iowa City laboratory in the next week so they can do the testing in-house.
Program Manager for Molecular Diagnostics Lucy DesJardin at the Hygienic Laboratory says specimens are tested there to see if it is the common seasonal flu. It is prepared for testing which takes about 2 ½ hours. The actual test takes a little over 1 ½ hours. If another genetic make-up is detected, then it is sent to the Center for Disease Control to determine if it is the H1N1 Influenza strain.
DesJardin says this new strain is something to which humans don't have an immunity. "What's going on now is that there is a strain that has some genetic characteristic to what's found in swine and what's found in birds and what's found in humans and that particular strain, however it got into the humans, is now able to transmit itself person to person spread."
Right now, the CDC has the testing kits for the H1N1 Influenza. They will be sending those kits to the Iowa City laboratory in the next week so they can do the testing in-house.
