How is the flu diagnosed?

Most of the time, the flu is self-diagnosed and individuals never seek medical treatment. In a clinical setting, diagnosis typically involves taking a patient history and possibly performing tests (some tests provide “rapid” results that are available in less than 1 hour; some, more accurate, tests require several days).^[1] Additionally, clinicians will seek to rule out other, similar conditions, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (covid-19), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the common cold, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and bacterial pneumonia.