Virological diagnosis of Influenza like Illness in Zagazig University Hospitals

Influenza-like illness (ILI) is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms with severe acute respiratory infection. Symptoms commonly include fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss of appetite, body aches and nausea, typically in connection with a sudden onset of illness. This study included 75 patients; nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained from all patients after 2 or 3 days of onset and were subjected to immunofluoresence and isolation by cell culture on MDCK cells. The results were that indirect immunofluoresence test performed directly on the nasopharyngeal samples revealed 23 positive cases out of 75 (30.7%). The cell culture revealed that 26 out of 75 (34.7%) cases were confirmed as influenza. When we compared Immunofluoresence versus the cell culture as the gold standard, its sensitivity =76.9 %, specificity = 93.9 % and accuracy = 88 %. When we compared Immunofluoresence before and after cell culture technique, we found it statistically non significant. Typing of the isolated virus by IF after cell culture revealed 21cases (80.8 %) were influenza virus type A and 5 (19.2 %) were type B.Key words:Influenza like illnessImmuonofluorescenceCell cultureInfluenza-like illness (ILI) is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms with .