“Respiratory infection testing”
My mom has had a respiratory infection for almost 2 weeks so she went back to the doctor again. The doctor said she would not test because it had been too long since the infection started. But couldn’t there be a secondary infection that had started later than the first? And could you not test for that, if the secondary infection had only started two or three days earlier? Thank you!
Female | 84 years old
Complaint duration: 12 days
Medications: BP
Conditions: Elderly
1 Answer
It might be too long to test for COVID or influenza, but there can still be bacteria that could be identified from a sputum culture. Blood tests and chest X-ray could also indicate if there is still an active infection of some kind.
