Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using parent-collected NTSs from children, in either a hospital setting or community setting, for laboratory confirmation of influenza and other respiratory virus infections without any significant loss in sensitivity [8] [9] [10] . Our results further extend this to selfcollected swabs by patients in the community setting, both for qualitative disease confirmation and quantitative viral load estimation. In the IRIS, 90% of self-collected swabs contained detectable influenza virus approximately 4-6 days after illness onset, indicating no substantial loss in sensitivity for qualitative virus detection through this approach. In the HTS, the lower proportion of specimens with detectable virus in the second swab can be attributed to the slightly longer average delay from illness onset.