Flu, RSV, corona or nothing at all? There’s a new self-test that will track it all down (but it’s not in high demand yet)

According to pharmacist Thomas Olyslager, such self-tests are no longer absolutely necessary. “I think that people are now especially more aware of infections. Good hand hygiene when you are sick and trying to avoid contact, that is at least as important,” he said yesterday on Radio 1 in “The world today”. Although such self-tests can be useful to curb the demand for unnecessary antibiotics, he thinks. “Some people say: I’m sick, give me an antibiotic. But with a viral infection, an antibiotic is of little or no use.”

And the pharmacists themselves? Don’t they earn money from those self-tests? “That demand is very limited at the moment,” explains Olyslager. “That revenue model is not that great.”