{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T02:41:07Z","timestamp":1781664067204,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","issue":"5","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,5,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Influenza accounts for a large burden of acute respiratory tract infections in high-income countries; data from lower-income settings are limited due to lack of confirmatory testing. Consecutive outpatients presenting to the largest tertiary care hospital in southern Sri Lanka were surveyed for influenza-like illness (ILI), defined as acute onset of fever \u2265 38.0\u00b0C and cough. Patients were administered a questionnaire and nasal\/nasopharyngeal sampling for rapid influenza A\/B testing. We enrolled 311 patients with ILI from March to November 2013: 170 (54.7%) children and 172 (55.3%) males. Approximately half (147, 47.3%) tested positive for influenza, but 253 (81.4%) were prescribed antibiotics. On bivariable analysis, symptoms associated with influenza included pain with breathing (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> &lt; 0.001), headache (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.005), fatigue (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.003), arthralgias (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.003), and myalgias (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.006) in children and pain with breathing (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.01), vomiting (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.03), and arthralgias (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.03) in adults. Our final clinical predictive models had low sensitivity and fair specificity\u201450.0% (95% CI: 38.6\u201361.4%) and 83.2% (95% CI: 73.4\u201390.0%), respectively, in children and 52.2% (95% CI: 39.9\u201364.2%) and 81.4% (95% CI: 70.0\u201389.4%), respectively, in adults. Our study confirms the ability of rapid influenza testing to identify an influenza epidemic in a setting in which testing is not routinely available.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.14-0708","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,3,3]],"date-time":"2015-03-03T03:32:38Z","timestamp":1425353558000},"page":"1023-1029","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["An Under-Recognized Influenza Epidemic Identified by Rapid Influenza Testing, Southern Sri Lanka, 2013"],"prefix":"10.4269","volume":"92","author":[{"given":"L. Gayani","family":"Tillekeratne","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Champica K.","family":"Bodinayake","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ajith","family":"Nagahawatte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dhammika","family":"Vidanagama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vasantha","family":"Devasiri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wasantha Kodikara","family":"Arachchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruvini","family":"Kurukulasooriya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aruna Dharshan","family":"De 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