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Young febrile infants who present to the emergency department (ED) usually have acute respiratory illnesses; many undergo extensive laboratory testing that has questionable value. To examine the effect of viral testing on antibiotic prescribing, Canadian investigators randomized 200 previously well febrile infants (age range, 3–36 months) to receive routine care or routine care plus nasopharyngeal washing for rapid multiviral diagnostic testing (with results for adenovirus; influenza virus A/B; parainfluenza virus 1, 2, 3; and respiratory syncytial virus available in 30–150 minutes).
No differences emerged between groups in the primary outcome (length of stay in the ED) or secondary outcomes (antibiotic use in the ED or ancillary testing). H…