As the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic continues, more discussions are being held about the different measures that can be taken. Last week on my blog, I discussed the work that is being done towards finding a vaccine to be used against this virus. As previously mentioned, until a vaccine is formulated and able to be distributed broadly, there will always be a risk for another outbreak of Coronavirus. The timeline for a vaccine is currently being set at anywhere from 12-18 months. However, something else is being done that involves immunity. Lately on the news, there has been lots of talk about antibody testing. Antibody testing can be used to test for whether someone has been affected with Coronavirus in the past and has since recovered from it-making them immune for a certain amount of time. How does this test work? Let’s discuss.
When a foreign microbe is introduced into our body, our immune system produces proteins that are known as antibodies. There are various kinds of antibodies that are produced by our bodies, and they can be used to tell us a plethora of information. According to Healthline, researchers are working to produce a serological test that can look for the presence of certain antibodies in the blood. IgM antibodies are the very first antibodies produced when a microbe is present. They are the first line of defense and therefore are present in large numbers at the beginning of an infection. IgG antibodies serve the role of “remembering” the microbes that you have already been exposed to. Whenever this serological testing is being done, if an abundance of IgG Coronavirus antibodies are found this could be a sign that you have already had the virus.
These antibody tests could mean a lot in terms of the future of life during this pandemic. For one, it could give us an idea of just truly how widespread this disease is. Because Coronavirus has many asymptomatic carriers and access to testing is somewhat limited, there is a great chance that many people have been infected without even knowing they had the virus. With antibody tests, those asymptomatic people would be able to be identified and those that already had the virus and are now immune may be able to return to work. According to an article released by NBC News, studies using antibody tests have already been started. Los Angeles County has over 10 million residents, and have had almost 10,000 cases confirmed. This makes it an ideal location for a study to be held to test the extent of how many people have been affected by Covid-19 in the United States. This could be the next big step in the fight against Coronavirus and potentially help towards coming out of lockdown earlier. I am excited to see the results of these studies.
Diana's Micro World 