Test Your Knowledge

Diagnosis by a physician of bird flu may involve a medical history and physical examination. The medical history will likely include questions on symptoms, including their duration, severity and progression. Because clinical symptoms may be similar to the flu and other respiratory diseases, patients should tell the physician about recent travel (especially within the past 10 days). This is particularly important if the patient was exposed to wild birds or poultry, especially if they were ill or dead. The physical examination will check for signs and symptoms that may not have been apparent to the patient, such as a low level of the white blood cells called lymphocytes (lymphopenia).

If bird flu is suspected based on the patient’s symptoms and recent travels, the physician may perform one or more tests to confirm the illness. Possible diagnosis methods include:

• Viral culture. The physician may take swabs of samples from the patient’s respiratory system to be grown in a laboratory setting.
  
  
• Blood test. Samples may be tested for the presence of genetic material from the virus through a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Blood may also be tested for antibodies against bird flu produced by the body.

In the United States, specimens from all patients suspected to have bird flu are also sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for confirmation.