Dr. Ana-Maria Temple explains when OTC antigen tests for flu, COVID, and RSV are reliable: a positive result is 95-99% accurate, but negatives can be false if timed wrong. Seek urgent care for respiratory distress or poor urine output, not for fever or a positive test alone.
This time of the year we're seeing flu, rsv, Covid combinations, metapneumovirus, rhinovirus, common cold, all the different things. I'm Dr. Anna Maria Temple, holistic pediatrician helping you raise healthy kids with less medications. If you are panicked and worried and you really want to know the name of the virus, you can do an over the counter test. You can get a CVS in Walgreens. If the test is positive for RSV for Covid for flu, the chances are very high like 95 to 99% that your child is having has the condition on that test. If that test is negative, there is a false negative rate. So if you test the child too soon or too late in the illness, the test may not be accurate. The more of the story of the test is positive. You don't need to go to urgent care to verify anything. Your child has flu, Covid, rsv. Whatever the issue, the reason to go to urgent care is if you're dealing with a child who's in respiratory distress, they're not urinating, they have terrible ear pain that needs to be looked at just for fever. You don't need to go.
