The corona virus is a major challenge worldwide. However, antibody tests are a great hope. But now US researchers are warning of false results.
- Antibody tests are designed to provide clarity during the Corona * crisis.
- But what is an antibody test really useful for and how certain is its result?
- US researchers warn: many corona antibody tests give incorrect results.
- Here you will find the basic facts about the corona virus and the corona news from Germany. You can also find current case numbers in Germany as a map. The following recommendations for corona protective measures * are currently available.
Munich - Research * plays a central role in the global fight against the corona virus . When will there be a vaccine *? When can an effective coronavirus drug come on the market?
Questions pile up over questions and in the middle of it has been a much discussed topic for weeks: antibody tests. They are considered a great hope in order to quickly clarify who has already been infected with Sars-CoV-2 . But are the tests suitable at all? US researchers are now warning.
Coronavirus: Antibody tests are questionable because of two factors
Antibody tests should be used to check on a large scale who has already had an infection with the coronavirus * and who may already be immune.
Scientists also hope to gain insights into herd immunity . Exactly this means that if 60 to 70 percent of the population is infected, the virus could not spread further due to the shortage of infection chains.
However, the German virologist Christian Drosten also summed up how unreliable antibody tests are. In a NDR podcast, he warned of so-called "false positive" tests .
Professor Ulrike Protzer, virologist at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, also addressed this point *. One has to be careful with an interpretation of such a test. After all, it could also be antibodies “that I had against some other similar coronavirus five years ago *, ” said the professor. So far, it has not been possible to prove whether one is immune after infection with Sars-CoV-2 .
How meaningful are the corona antibody tests?
© dpa / Lee Jin-Man
Coronavirus: US researchers warn - and test antibody tests
According to the Paul Ehrlich Institute - the Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines - many antibody tests are certified by the manufacturers themselves. The validity of the test is therefore not always guaranteed. There is currently no recognized quality standard for the tests, as the Paul Ehrlich Institute informs.
According to a “Spiegel” report, US scientists have tested a total of 14 antibody tests for reliability. The result is terrifying: only three of the 14 tests that the scientists tested were reasonably useful.
This emerges from a preprint of the results of the scientists. At the same time, it expressly states that this "preprint" has not yet been checked by the scientific community. Only one test gave no error result, all others showed a "false positive" result.
Corona antibody tests "false positive" - what does this mean for the number of cases?
Microbiologist Scott Hensley, however, described the antibody tests against the New York Times as "unacceptable" with regard to the results of the test. But what does this result mean for the current number of cases that cause a stir every day?
Hensley further said that the proportion of people infected with the virus in the United States is believed to be five percent or less. "If your test kit has a false positive percentage of three percent, how do you interpret that? It is basically impossible. And if your kit gives 14 percent false positives, it's actually useless. ”
However, there is hope for a vaccine in the UK.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
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