"HOUSTON (AP) -- Meridian Bioscience Inc. said Thursday the Food and Drug Administration will allow the company to market its seasonal influenza test as a potential detector of two strains of swine flu.

The FDA granted the company special clearance to update the packaging of its TRU FLU kit to include claims that it is sensitive to two strains of swine flu.

The company said the ability of the test kit to actually detect the two strains has not been established. TRU FLU is approved to detect seasonal flu.

Shares of Meridian fell 44 cents to $25 in afternoon trading."

Why didn't the company clarify that their test identifies Type A flu strains, swine flu is a type A flu, as is a common seasonal flu, and therefore TRU FLU will detect it. They want to put this on the TRU FLU kit. Methinks the medical people dealing with the kit are aware of this fact or the detail people from Meridian ought to be fired. Maybe test kit sales have dropped and this is the company's reaction. All the reports say that the flu out there is either seasonal or swine flu and no difference in severity. Why would anyone want to test? If I were doing general practice, why would I want to test and expose myself or my patients to the flu whatever the subtype. If the H1N1 flu mutates into something more deadly, I would think that testing would be done to determine if one has the more serious type, but not under the present circumstances. To summarize, when a patient or their agent calls their physician with flu symptoms, they would be questioned as to symptoms like fever. Maybe given a prescription for Tamiflu and advice on treatment and instructed to a call back. I doubt if a great percentage of patients will be seen, especially in an office situation during peak hours.