COVID-19 Antibody Test.

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MikeD
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Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:31 pm
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United States of America

COVID-19 Antibody Test.

Post by MikeD »

Hello folks!
I hope all is well!
IF you cannot get the nasal swap test done, the antibody test or serology/blood test should be available this week at least in the USA. I am not sure if the antibody test is currently available in Cambodia or Thailand, if anyone could comment on that and how widespread it is. It is really a quick test to immediately find out whether you have been exposed to AND recovered from the particular virus. If your body has cleared the virus, you have immunity against it when the reading on the test strip would show +IgM or +IgG, the antibody in the blood.

When testing positive you will have a piece of mind that you are NOT going to be reinfected with the same viral strand. So it is not a bad thing at all if you fall in this category! Back in the states I cannot even get any testing done! People are dying by the hundreds of thousands!

Now if you are infected just very recently, the blood test may show negative because the body takes some time to develop the antibodies.

It is possible you may not show any symptoms during the entire period of infection and recovery. Still, the test is important to have in order to detect the viral marker and antibody levels in the blood.

Please stay isolated! To be honest, you are probably safer to remain in PP then trying to flee and bump into various travelers who might be carrying the virus!
Just like China, Cambodia does not seem to object to the mass departure..China let travelers fly out as soon as the outbreak began!
Mike
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ExPenhMan
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Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 7:42 pm
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Location: Bangkok
Canada

Re: COVID-19 Antibody Test.

Post by ExPenhMan »

Thanks for the tip.

In yesterday's New York Times column, the antibody test almost ready falls far short of the goal to tell if you're immune or discern your level of antibodies.
Dr. Thomas Tuschl, a professor at Rockefeller University who is an expert in RNA viruses, of which coronavirus is one, explained that different antibodies bind different regions on the coronavirus and can have different effects.

“Antibodies that bind to the spike — the protein that projects from the virus — may contribute to immunity and slow down viral entry, but they are not as effective as ‘neutralizing antibodies,’” he wrote in an email. Neutralizing antibodies render the virus unable to infect our cells. They bind a very specific site on the spike (that site is a good target for drug development).

The F.D.A.-approved test can’t distinguish between these different antibodies, nor does it measure the amount of antibody in your blood.

“This new test just tells you that you’ve been exposed to coronavirus, but doesn’t prove that you have immunity,” said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University. “The next generation of antibody tests, which assay neutralizing antibodies, can tell us who is actually immune.” These tests may be months away from development.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/opin ... -test.html
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Clemen
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Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2018 5:04 pm
Reputation: 660
Cambodia

Re: COVID-19 Antibody Test.

Post by Clemen »

MikeD wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:18 am Hello folks!
I hope all is well!
IF you cannot get the nasal swap test done, the antibody test or serology/blood test should be available this week at least in the USA. I am not sure if the antibody test is currently available in Cambodia or Thailand, if anyone could comment on that and how widespread it is. It is really a quick test to immediately find out whether you have been exposed to AND recovered from the particular virus. If your body has cleared the virus, you have immunity against it when the reading on the test strip would show +IgM or +IgG, the antibody in the blood.

When testing positive you will have a piece of mind that you are NOT going to be reinfected with the same viral strand. So it is not a bad thing at all if you fall in this category! Back in the states I cannot even get any testing done! People are dying by the hundreds of thousands!

Now if you are infected just very recently, the blood test may show negative because the body takes some time to develop the antibodies.

It is possible you may not show any symptoms during the entire period of infection and recovery. Still, the test is important to have in order to detect the viral marker and antibody levels in the blood.

Please stay isolated! To be honest, you are probably safer to remain in PP then trying to flee and bump into various travelers who might be carrying the virus!
Just like China, Cambodia does not seem to object to the mass departure..China let travelers fly out as soon as the outbreak began!
Mike
There is so much wrong with this post, it's hard to know where to begin.
I'll just say that people have been reinfected and that the accuracy of current tests falls below generally accepted standards.
up to you...
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Born-Confused
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Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 9:29 am
Reputation: 67
Australia

Re: COVID-19 Antibody Test.

Post by Born-Confused »

^^ This

Not to mention that in response to the outbreak, the FDA has waived initial review of the tests, and so there will be a flood of tests which have had no oversight. The other issue as Clemen has sort of pointed out, there is actually no clear data on what level of antibody titer renders patients immune, nor in fact how long the immunity lasts.
This is really just a typical fast food which most is mostly junk!
MikeD
Expatriate
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 2:31 pm
Reputation: 19
United States of America

Re: COVID-19 Antibody Test.

Post by MikeD »

I listen to what the top doctors in my country, the USA, had to say and try to inform others. If you read carefully, the presence of antibodies represents immunity to the particular RNA viral strain.Now if you are talking about different types of viruses or mutating viruses, etc, other than the one detected and fought off by the T and B cells then you and that Japanese doctor in the citation are making a lot of assumptions. Still, the positive IgM and IgG level of antibodies is your immunity again the COVID-19 viral strain and possibly its related family members. So far there is no clinical evidence to suggest otherwise. Again, the reinfection rate will be LOW or zero. That is why they are expediting the antibody test to possibly track/allow the recovered individuals to get back to work or release from social isolation. That's a good thing. Testing positive is a good thing, not a stigma. Testing negative could simply mean the infection has been very recent. Who would want to stay home in limbo week after week, month after month, not knowing what their infection status is?
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