xTAG®

Knowing the symptoms is 
the first step to recovery.

When you or your child has fever, sore throat or other symptoms, you don’t always know if it’s the flu and all you want are answers – fast. The flu and other respiratory viruses can be difficult to distinguish from each other because many different viruses cause similar symptoms. Also, there’s no one “classic” set of symptoms – some people might get only a cough and a fever when they get the flu, while others might have aches and sniffles.

The most common symptoms of the flu include:

• Fever, often high
• Headache
• Extreme fatigue or a sense of feeling “drained”
• Cough, usually dry (no phlegm)
• Sore or scratchy throat
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Muscle or whole-body aches

Other respiratory virus symptoms can include:

• Adenovirus: cough, fever, sore throat, conjunctivitis (pinkeye), pneumonia
• Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV):
• In infants: croup, fever, bronchiolitis, pneumonia
• In older children: runny or stuffy nose, cough
• Parainfluenza: similar to RSV
• Metapneumovirus: similar to RSV but usually milder; fever more common than with RSV
• Rhinovirus: runny or stuffy nose
• Enterovirus: similar to influenza
• Coronavirus: similar to influenza

Because so many of these viruses cause similar symptoms, it may be virtually impossible to tell which virus you have unless further diagnostic tests are done. The xTAG RVP test can detect the most important respiratory viruses and subtypes all from a single sample. This allows doctors to pinpoint exactly which virus is causing an infection and manage patients accordingly.  And that can give you the comfort of knowing exactly what the problem is, and what can be done to solve it.