Antibody test

[AVB]

My wife has been sent a letter inviting her to participate in the antibody in-home testing research study. Anybody else been invited? 

[paul1966]

One of the girls i work with had one through the post, someone came and collected it.

[mad1]

Was it for imperial college london...I done one quite simple to do and make arrangements for them to come and collect on a certain date.

Had a reply a few days later yo say I was clear that I didnt have anything (only at that moment time in)

Scott

[AVB]

Yes imperial college but it states that you will now the result within 15 minutes. Nothing needs to be collected and you mail them the result. 

[Sian]

I met a friend whilst out today who was invited to take part.  She has antibodies. She fell ill in February- her symptoms were headache and loss of smell.  She thought nothing of it until much later.   Her sense of smell has not returned yet.  She’s a fit 60 yer old.

[mad1]

27 minutes ago, AVB said:

Yes imperial college but it states that you will now the result within 15 minutes. Nothing needs to be collected and you mail them the result. 

Cant see how you will get results that quick.

It was a swab for back of nose and throat.

This was done on morning of collection then they contact you in a few days via letter and email...

[AVB]

Blood test via finger ***** apparently.  

[7daysinaweek]

19 minutes ago, AVB said:

Blood test via finger ***** apparently.  

Near patient test finger capillary blood specimen for IgG antibody to Sars Cov 2, visual result in 15 minutes.

 

49 minutes ago, Sian said:

I met a friend whilst out today who was invited to take part.  She has antibodies. She fell ill in February- her symptoms were headache and loss of smell.  She thought nothing of it until much later.   Her sense of smell has not returned yet.  She’s a fit 60 yer old.

Total loss of sense of smell is known as Asnosmia,  a decreased sense of smell is Hyposmia, these are common symptoms with upper respiratory tract infections such as sinusitis, also known to be symptom with Covid. Asnosmia can persist for weeks to months and in rare cases sense of smell never returns at all. Also symptoms of Phantosmia have been reported with Covid, having the sense of different odours when they are not there. 

atb

7diaw

[Sian]

1 hour ago, 7daysinaweek said:

Near patient test finger capillary blood specimen for IgG antibody to Sars Cov 2, visual result in 15 minutes.

 

Total loss of sense of smell is known as Asnosmia,  a decreased sense of smell is Hyposmia, these are common symptoms with upper respiratory tract infections such as sinusitis, also known to be symptom with Covid. Asnosmia can persist for weeks to months and in rare cases sense of smell never returns at all. Also symptoms of Phantosmia have been reported with Covid, having the sense of different odours when they are not there. 

atb

7diaw

She can’t smell a thing not even the dog’s breath

[oowee]

3 hours ago, Sian said:

I met a friend whilst out today who was invited to take part.  She has antibodies. She fell ill in February- her symptoms were headache and loss of smell.  She thought nothing of it until much later.   Her sense of smell has not returned yet.  She’s a fit 60 yer old.

My Daughter (doc on a corona ward) and her partner (nhs bio chem doc) have both just been tested. Both have antibodies and previously no symptoms.

[7daysinaweek]

27 minutes ago, oowee said:

My Daughter (doc on a corona ward) and her partner (nhs bio chem doc) have both just been tested. Both have antibodies and previously no symptoms.

They will have been busy oowee.

I am getting a tested tomorrow, venous blood test and have to wait up to 7 days for the results from the lab. Fingers crossed I have antibody. 🤞

[JTaylor91]

I was chatting to a neonatal nurse the other week. They had the antibody test done and apparently a lot have come back with antibodies although have never had any syptoms.

[SpringDon]

Is it now fact that there cannot be second infections? And is it known how long immunity (if any) lasts?

[Raja Clavata]

On 16/06/2020 at 22:19, oowee said:

My Daughter (doc on a corona ward) and her partner (nhs bio chem doc) have both just been tested. Both have antibodies and previously no symptoms.

Must be a bit of a relief.

[oowee]

2 hours ago, Raja Clavata said:

Must be a bit of a relief.

Too true 🙂 She moves in August to a new area of work but it sounds to me like more of the same 'lungs and respiratory tract' at least it's one step away. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by oowee

[Gu5]

Yep, got an invite.

👍

[powler]

My wife had a test through work(Doctors Surgery) and tested negative even though she was positive for Covid19 about a month ago. I wonder how reliable the test is or if she just does not have antibodies.

Mick

[AVB]

39 minutes ago, powler said:

My wife had a test through work(Doctors Surgery) and tested negative even though she was positive for Covid19 about a month ago. I wonder how reliable the test is or if she just does not have antibodies.

Mick

Apparently it takes a while for the body to produce antibodies so if she had CV-19 at the time her body may not have produced enough at the time the test was taken. 

[powler]

29 minutes ago, AVB said:

Apparently it takes a while for the body to produce antibodies so if she had CV-19 at the time her body may not have produced enough at the time the test was taken. 

Just spoke to the wife and didn't realise it was so long ago but the timescale positive test April 28th and antibody test this week so there is seven a week gap, both tests done by NHS staff.

Mick

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by powler

[7daysinaweek]

On 17/06/2020 at 10:14, SpringDon said:

Is it now fact that there cannot be second infections? And is it known how long immunity (if any) lasts?

Hi Springdon

No and No

Infection can be defined as "a disease in a part of your body that is caused by bacteria or a virus."

If you have been infected by a bacteria or a virus then your immune system will have created some antibodies namely immune cells that are identified as memory T and memory B cells. These cells record the information of the threat and store it after they have inactivated the threat. If the host (person, animal) are infected again these memory cells are activated as they  can recognise the threat and inactivate it.

The chain of infection is as follows:

1) Reservoir : where the virus, bacteria, fungus, pathogen resides, could be a human/animal/furnishings/water etc basically any place the pathogen can live and multiply.

2) Portal of exit from the reservoir: Human touches side of toilet pan picks up germs and touches mouth, germs has exited the toilet which was the reservoir and now traveled to the host. Someone coughs and spread into air, someone else breaths it in.

3) The mode of transmission: How pathogens move from one are to another, coughs, sneezing, picked up on a hand and transmitted to another surface.

4) Portal of entry into the host: breathed in, through wounds /cuts and mucus membranes of eyes and nose, through veins with injecting of needles.

5) The susceptible host: In most instances if you are healthy an infection enters your body and your immune system recognises it,responds and deals with the threat and they stay well. For some people such young children, older adults without and with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes, heart and lung conditions, people receiving some types of medicine that affect the immune system are 'susceptible hosts' as if an infection enters the body the immune systems ability to recognise and overcome the invading pathogen is reduced. There is an increased risk that the pathogen may be able to multiply and overwhelm the host.

6) The infectious agent: The type of germ/pathogen/microbe/bacteria/virus that invades the host.

 

As for many infections we are reinfected time after however our immune system remembers and responds quickly and the threat is reduced to a non threat level or totally inactivated by our immune system, this happens every day. So we may come into contact with a certain virus or bacteria again and we do not become unwell and get no symptoms our body deactivates it quickly. The most common symptoms of infection are raised temperature, muscle aches because when an invading pathogen starts getting out of control our immune system increase our body temperature as many pathogens cannot replicate new copies of themselves in a raised body environment. This is why as that the levels of a temperature are a very important indicator when assessing a patients clinical condition amongst a whole raft of other observations and tests.

As for length of immunity from Covid this is still unestablished, Covid is a coronavirus and like other corona viruses such as the flu and the cold virus (Rhinoviruses) these can mutate many, many times. This is the reason the flu vaccination changes slightly each year as the virus changes slightly and the vaccine which is a weakened or dead strain of the new changed virus allows new memory cells to be made and recognise the newly changed virus. If the vaccine was not updated the old memory cells are at risk of not recognising the new changes to the virus and does not recognise it as a threat which is then a risk as the 'new improved virus which has grown an extra limb can run around unchallenged.

Many bacteria as opposed to corona viruses do not mutate significantly and as an example such as the the several menigococcal bacteria, many bacteria vaccines are only required once or a few times throughout development and life as our immune system can make a copy of the threat and remember it as it does not mutate significantly.  However even with bacteria over the years our immune system can forget the threat and that is the reason we re vaccinate and booster.

So t answer your question on producing Covid antibody only time will tell which antibodies are produced and what level of immunity our immune system remembers the threat and for how long, many variables how much the virus mutates. There are parts of the virus that do not change these are the invariant parts and the parts which mutate or the variant parts. These invariant may be able to a greater extent to help our immune system to recognise the threat. It may be the case that a vaccine is required yearly like the flu.There is no doubt that if you are infected with covid you will have of created some form of antibody but the question what level of antibody was produced and for how long can your immune system remember it and how much does the mutating pathogen change.

Most vaccines take 5-10 years to produce as it is the long term data is needed however, covid has placed such a worldwide disease burden upon global society that things are moving faster than ever in developments.

Hope this makes some sense.

atb

7diaw

 

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by 7daysinaweek

[SpringDon]

2 hours ago, 7daysinaweek said:

Hi Springdon

No and No

<snip>

Hope this makes some sense.

atb

7diaw

 

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to distill all that (you have far more patience than I do). It made perfect sense until the bit after “no and no”.

Actually I did sort of understand and it confirms my suspicion that there will be no “end” to all this. At best there will be a new seasonal viral infection and at worst....I suppose ‘this’ in perpetuity.

ps. There is a free pun in there for you. Please feel free to use it on your colleagues.

[AVB]

My wife’s test kit came this morning. She tested positive for IgM antibodies but the caveat is that it isn’t accurate for IgM antibodies (only IgG) and should be ignored! 

Edited June 20, 2020 by AVB
Spelling

[Retsdon]

Apparently, antibodies may only be part of the equation. 

'Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding both the immunological processes providing specific immunity and potential immunopathology underlying the pathogenesis of this disease may provide valuable insights for potential therapeutic interventions. Here, we quantified SARS-CoV-2 specific immune responses in patients with different clinical courses. Compared to individuals with a mild clinical presentation, CD4+ T cell responses were qualitatively impaired in critically ill patients. Strikingly, however, in these patients the specific IgG antibody response was remarkably strong. The observed disparate T and B cell responses could be indicative of a deregulated immune response in critically ill COVID-19 patients.'

In other words, in terms of the severity of the disease, how your T and B cells respond is as important as your antibody response - if not more so. And maybe this runs over into potential immunity too. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159202v1