COVID-19 Facts: Antibody Test Details And If You Can Be Immune To The Infection

Testing for COVID-19 involves the swabbing of the nose or throat and taking some samples of your sputum if you are suffering from a continuous and congested cough. Health experts, however, are keenly looking at antibody tests and the possibility of using such in helping prevent the further spread of the deadly virus.

Antibody Test: What Is It?

Sometimes called the serological test, an antibody test is said to have the capacity of detecting whether a person already got infected by the coronavirus and has recovered. The test would allow health professionals to know if a person has already recovered from the infection and have developed immunity to COVID-19. This can be done by testing the blood of a person for coronavirus antibodies.

The current coronavirus testing kit would only allow you to see whether a person is carrying the virus at this time. Health professionals, using this coronavirus testing kit, would have no idea if such a person already had the virus before and has since recovered.

A New Type Of Test

In the case of the UK, Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, recently announced the government is currently in negotiations to acquire a new kind of antibody test. This new test would tell health professionals if you already had the virus and is now immune to it. The UK Government plans to buy millions of such test kits.

In a press conference at Downing Street on Tuesday, Mr. Hancock said that the Government had purchased three and a half million antibody tests. This will allow people to check whether they already got infected by the virus and are now immune to it. Possessing such knowledge would allow them to go back to their daily routines.

A Second Infection

While scientists are not 100% sure yet whether a person already infected can get the infection again, such a situation may be rare. According to Mr. Hancock, UK health experts have said that they do not expect people to catch it again for the second time, except perhaps in exceptional circumstances.

He also announced that their new testing facility in Milton Keynes is already open. Medical professionals are ready to conduct thousands of tests each day to ramp-up the testing numbers.

Can One Have COVID-19 Immunity?

Scientists and health experts say that while COVID-19 shares similarities in the way common flu mutates, which means it is possible to contract it twice, immunity is also possible. Dr. Stephen Gluckman, a physician specializing in infectious diseases at Penn Medicine, is likely that most people will develop immunity if they been infected and have since recovered.

Dr. Gluckman said that coronaviruses are not something new as they have been around for a very long time. A lot of species, not only humans, get them. He said that the scientific community already knows a fair amount about coronaviruses, and just like other coronaviruses, once you had them and recovered, you are immune. Dr. Gluckman admitted, however, that it is a general perception and is based on other coronaviruses. With this specific coronavirus, it is not known yet, but it is likely to be the same.