How to Do a Swine Flu Nasal Swab

In the midst of a flu epidemic, the first sign of symptoms can mean either the Swine Flu (H1N1 virus) or another flu virus. Doctors do have ways of determining which flu is causing the symptoms. The nasal pharyngeal swab is one of those tests. A nasal swab is done to collect a sample of the virus in the nasal cavity. The sample is cultured and analyzed to determine the type of flu, if any, that the patient may have. Only a medical doctor or a nurse in a medical office or hospital should perform a swine flu nasal swab.

Things You'll Need

• Nasopharyngeal swabs in solution

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Instructions

• 1

  Open the nasal swabs. Doctors prefer aluminum or plastic swabs with tips made of synthetic tips because of their decreased risk of broken shafts and loose tips. Avoid the swabs with wood shafts and tips made of cotton, because these are especially fragile.

• 2

  Tilt the patient's head back so that the nose is pointed at a 135-degree angle to the neck. (The head, when looking forward, forms a 90-degree angle from the nose to the base of the neck, so tilt the head back another 45 degrees to get the 135-degree angle from nose to neck base that is appropriate for this procedure.)

• 3

  Insert the swab inside the nose. Guide the swab through one of the nostrils and into the sinus cavity. Guide a second swab through the other nostril, just as you did the first.

• 4

  Put each swab in a plastic tube containing a solution needed to carefully get the sample to the lab. Place the sealed, marked tubes inside a cold packed container. Send the container to the lab for analysis.

• 5

  Put a mask over the mouth and nose of the patient and send him home while he waits for the results. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the results of a viral culture will become available in 3 to 10 days. The patient will have to go home and wait for these results.The doctor may send the specimen for a rapid result, which will return in 15 minutes. Cultures are more accurate than rapid testing, but the rapid test can give a quick positive or negative for flu, which is especially important if the patient already has flu-like symptoms.