As winter approaches, health experts expect flu and COVID-19 cases to begin to rise. Here’s the good news: If you do get sick, there’s a way to get tested and treated at the same time without paying a dime.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Office of Strategic Preparedness and Response, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have partnered with digital health company eMed to create an at-home testing treatment program that provides free testing for two diseases: influenza and 19 If you test positive, you can receive free telehealth visits and antiviral treatment delivered to your home.
There are currently some restrictions on who can register and receive free testing. After the program officially launched last month, amid a flood of requests from people wanting to stock up on tests, NIH and eMed decided to give priority to those who cannot afford tests, including those without health insurance and those who are covered by government programs such as Medicare. Insurance for people, Medicaid and veterans.
But the treatment portion of the program is open to anyone over 18 who tests positive for the flu or COVID-19, regardless of whether they have taken one of the program’s free tests. People who sign up will be connected to a telehealth provider through eMed to discuss whether they might benefit from antiviral treatment. There are four approved drugs included for the treatment of influenza:
Although there is another approved treatment for COVID-19, remdesivir (Veklury), it is an intravenous infusion and requires a health care provider, so it likely will not be widely available under the program. Dr. Michael Mina, eMed’s chief scientific officer, predicts that doctors will likely rely on Tamiflu or Xofluza to treat the flu and Paxlovid to treat COVID-19.
The idea behind the program is to see if moving testing and treatment out of the hands of doctors and into the hands of patients will improve and speed up access to them, ideally reducing the spread of influenza and COVID-19. “We think this will benefit people who live in rural areas and don’t have easy access to a health care facility, or people who got sick over the weekend and can’t do it,” said Andrew Weitz, director of the National Institutes of Health’s at-home test. and Treatment Program. Contact your healthcare provider immediately. “Antiviral drugs for both the flu and COVID-19 are most effective when people take them within a few days of the onset of symptoms (one to two days for the flu, five days for COVID-19). This reduces the time it takes to progress that people notice Having enough tests on hand can help people get rid of symptoms and get treatment faster.
If you are eligible, the test you receive in the mail is a single kit that combines COVID-19 and the flu, and is more complex than the COVID-19 rapid antigen test. This is a version of the gold standard molecular test (PCR) that laboratories use to look for genes for influenza and SARS-CoV-2. “It’s actually a great deal for [those who qualify] to get two free molecular tests,” Mina said, since they cost about $140 to purchase. In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a cheaper, faster antigen test that can detect both influenza and COVID-19; if this happens, testing and treatment programs will also offer these services.
It’s about moving the testing and treatment of the most common respiratory diseases out of the cumbersome health care system and into people’s homes. COVID-19 has taught doctors and patients that virtually anyone can reliably test themselves using kits that are relatively easy to use. Combined with telemedicine options for people who test positive, more patients will be able to receive prescriptions for antiviral treatment, which could not only help them feel better but also reduce the risk of spreading the infection to others.
As part of the program, NIH will also collect data to try to answer some important questions about the role of self-testing programs and test-to-treat programs in U.S. health care. For example, researchers will examine whether such programs increase access to antiviral treatment and increase the proportion of people receiving treatment when the drugs are most effective. “One of our main goals is to understand how quickly people go from feeling unwell to being treated, and whether the program can do this faster than someone waiting to see a doctor or urgent care and then having to go to the pharmacy to get their medication. ” said Waits.
Researchers will send a survey to program participants who received telemedicine visits and drug prescriptions 10 days after the visit and six weeks later to find out how many people actually received and took antiviral medications, as well as ask broader questions. COVID-19 infection among participants and how many of them experienced a Paxlovid relapse, in which people experience a recurrence of infection after testing negative after taking the drug.
The program will have a separate, more rigorous research component in which many participants will be asked to take part in a study conducted in partnership with the University of Massachusetts that will help scientists better understand whether early treatment can reduce people’s risk of infection. If other family members are infected, learn about the spread of influenza and COVID-19. This could give doctors a better understanding of how contagious COVID-19 is, how long people are contagious and how effective treatments are at reducing infection. This in turn could help refine current advice on how long people should isolate.
The plan is to “use the latest technology to meet people in person and hopefully avoid them going to a health care facility and potentially infecting others,” Weitz said. “We’re interested in understanding how to push the envelope and provide alternative options for health care delivery.”