#2: How is Covid-19 detected? — Serology Testing
Hello Guys!
In this post I will be discussing (simplifying) another method — serology testing or antibody testing — to detect and and possibly treat the corona virus. Before I begin, I would like to define two terms that will be utilized in this post:
- Antigen: a foreign substance that upon entering our body induces an immunological response
- Antibody: substance that is being produced by our body against an antigen
The main principle behind this procedure is that an infection, a viral infection in this case, can be detected by the presence of the antibodies in the blood samples of an infected person.
According to experts, two antibodies — IgM and IgG — are produced in an infected person, whereas a recovering or fully-recovered patient contains only the IgG antibodies. Thus by analyzing the antibodies of the blood samples, corona virus can be detected.
Experts suggest that this is a more effective and reliable way of detecting the virus — Why?
The pressing issue with the now-popular virus is that an affected person does not exhibit any symptoms up to (a minimum of) two weeks of infection, which is harmful since the person may transmit the virus to the people surrounding them.
So how to find out if a person is infected, but is not exhibiting any symptoms? — simple…by antibody testing. Thus without exhibiting the symptoms of the viral infection, the virus can be detected by studying the antibodies produced in a person’s bloodstream. By detecting the infection beforehand, the patient can be treated at an earlier stage of infection.
Furthermore, as mentioned in my previous post, the RT-PCR method of testing may not be as reliable since it might produce incorrect test results. So through this antibody testing method, detection of the virus will be more reliable.
Additionally, the antibodies (IgG) can be obtained from a recovered patient to treat a newly infected person. How come? — The antibodies produced against the virus gain a memory on how to tackle the virus if it affects the person again. Thus by administering this memory-containing IgG antibodies to an infected person, through blood transfusion, the patient might recover from the viral infection. However this diagnostic method is under trial, since the duration of the memory of the antibodies, with regards to this case, is uncertain.
Nevertheless, since it is a time-consuming and expensive testing procedure this method is not widely popular.
If you haven’t checked out my previous post: https://medium.com/@mrithikaomprakash/how-is-covid-19-identified-1-93d8dc5d6326?source=friends_link&sk=73208088f7e550ef6077511015e9c834
For a more scientific in-depth analysis refer to this website: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-how-coronavirus-tests-work-and-who-offers-them/
