• E Ozkaya, N Cambaz, Y Coşkun, F Mete, M Geyik, and N Samanci.
• Department of Pediatrics, Vakif Gureba Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. minozkaya@yahoo.com
• Acta Paediatr. 2009 Oct 1;98(10):1589-92.

AimTo determine the influence of rapid diagnosis of influenza on antibiotic prescribing to children presenting with influenza-like illness in the emergency department in a inner city hospital in Istanbul, Turkey.MethodsPatients aged 3 to 14 years presenting to an urban children's teaching hospital emergency department were screened for fever and cough, coryza, myalgias and/or malaise. After obtaining informed consent, patients were allocated into two groups. Group 1: patients were prescribed antibiotics after only physical examination; or Group 2: patients were prescribed antibiotics after rapid influenza testing. Nasopharyngeal swabs obtained from all patients were immediately tested in a single-blind manner with Influenza A/B Rapid Test(R) for influenza A and B.ResultsA total of 97 patients were enrolled, and 33 (34%) of these tested positive for influenza. Although frequency of positive results for influenza between the groups was similar (36% vs 32%, respectively), patients in Group 2 were less likely to be prescribed antibiotics when compared to those in Group 1 (32% vs 100%, respectively, p < 0.0001).ConclusionRapid diagnosis of influenza in the paediatric emergency department may allow a significant reduction in the over-prescription of antibiotics.

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