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"You are immune, forget about the corona crisis, you are out": Doctors judge rapid antibody tests

2020-04-14T15:10:13.542Z


Throat swabs indicate an acute coronavirus infection - antibody tests against whether the immune system has already dealt with the pathogen. This is what doctors say about the test procedures.


Throat swabs indicate an acute coronavirus infection - antibody tests against whether the immune system has already dealt with the pathogen. This is what doctors say about the test procedures.

  • The coronavirus pandemic is widespread, with 1,930,780 Covid-19 infections reported worldwide. Of these, 462,061 people are considered fully recovered. (As of April 14, 2020)
  • People whose immune system has successfully fought the coronavirus develop antibodies that play an important role in the therapy of the novel lung disease Covid-19 *. In addition, carriers of antibodies should not get Covid-19 again.
  • Antibody tests indicate whether you have already been in contact with the virus. Various tests are already available - but are considered controversial among medical professionals.

The symptoms of a coronavirus infection * are diverse - they range from mild cold symptoms to shortness of breath. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as the federal authority for infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases formulates it on its website as follows: "The course of the disease is non-specific, varied and varies widely, from asymptomatic course to severe pneumonia with lung failure and death. Therefore, none make general statements about the "typical" course of the disease. " With this in mind, it is possible that many people have already had a coronavirus infection without knowing it.

In this case, the body's immune system successfully fought the pathogen and antibodies against the coronavirus can be detected in the blood. Virologists assume that the pandemic will not come to a standstill until 60 to 70 percent of the population has survived an infection with Covid-19 - and has thus also produced antibodies. This is where antibody tests come in. A large number of these products are already available in (online) trade - but not every test is recommended.

Antibody self-tests from the Internet: results not meaningful

So far, there is no test procedure that can unequivocally detect antibodies against Sars-CoV-2, as the Spiegel reported. It cannot be ruled out that the currently available tests will work on antibodies against other corona viruses. And there are many of them: " The family of coronaviruses includes a whole range of different pathogens. (...) About a third of the typical" colds "are caused by this largest of the RNA viruses and also one or the other" diarrhea " cause them, "informs the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research.

Experts therefore advise against self-tests that can be obtained on the Internet. The result of such tests is simply not meaningful . But there are differences in the antibody tests, which is why some doctors have decided to offer them in their practice despite criticism. This includes the Munich family doctor Dr. Michael Weier. He told Bayerischer Rundfunk: "Of course, you also have to think about how to put this into practice in this test. We do it in our practice in such a way that people are given advice after the test. You can't just say now : 'You are immune, forget about the corona crisis *, you are out.' It doesn't work that easy. "

Read also: This happens with a coronavirus infection in the body.

ELISA test for Covid-19: Antibodies can only be detected around two weeks after the onset of symptoms

Error prone, inaccurate and overpriced: skeptical voices about the rapid antibody tests come mainly from the ranks of virologists. Professor Ulrike Protzer, virologist at Helmholtz Zentrum München, comments: "You have to be careful when interpreting such a test. The false positive tests are particularly dangerous. That is, if the test shows me that I have antibodies and I believe "I'm protected, I can do everything again now , but that's not true, because they are antibodies that I had against some other similar corona virus five years ago ."

However, experts have hope in the antibody-based detection method ELISA (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay). This method has long been used for the detection of antibodies in the blood - for example in viral infections, in toxicology or in cancer. ELISA tests for the new Sars-CoV-2 are already on the market, but very few. In China, machines that could perform ELISA tests were used in over 100 clinics. In Germany, ELISA antibody tests are currently only carried out in exceptional cases, which is mainly due to the current lack of availability . "The antibody test is also in no way intended for the acute diagnosis of sick patients and does not replace diagnostics using PCR * ( editor's note: the PCR test requires a throat swab ) made from respiratory materials, since antibodies only take about 2 weeks after the onset of symptoms and are detectable approx. 4 weeks after infection ", informs the laboratory group Dr. Kramer & Kollegen and asks for understanding that in many cases blood samples cannot be examined promptly because the laboratory is currently "- like all other laboratories in Germany - only sporadically supplied with reagent by the manufacturer".

In the video: Fighting Corona - 5 tips on how to strengthen your immune system

More sources: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html; www.rki.de; www.aerzteblatt.de

Read more : Medicines against Covid-19: University Hospital Erlangen reports successful antibody therapy.

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* merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network .

Source: merkur

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