How To Read Covid Antibody Test Results In The Correct Way

The covid-19 antibody test entails testing the blood to monitor the body’s response to SAR-COV-2(the virus responsible for covid-19 infection).

Lately, clinicians from China have instituted a diagnostic way to detect immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG). It’s worth noting that parlors diagnose the SAR-CqOV-2 virus during the early stages of infection. And a stipulated timeline of about (5-14 days) is required for the patient to produce IgM and IgG antibodies against the virus. 

When taking and analyzing the results for the covid-19 antibody test, clinicians should be very cautious about unravelling false-negative results during the early stages of covid-19 infection. Moreover, since cross-examination with different viral infections like influenza has not been thoroughly done, it is vital to carry out the antibody test with a combination of another molecular diagnostic test like the RRT-PCR.

After considering to undertake a covid-19 Antibody test, it’s important to keep in mind that the test holds four possible results:

1. IgM negative, IgG negative

This means there is no possibility for any evidence of prevalent/current infection or initial infection. 

Please note that it takes at least four days from when the symptoms are detected or 7 days from when you were first exposed to the virus to register a positive on your antibodies. This implies that the covid-19 antibody test cannot detect infection in the preliminary stages.

In case of any speculation of a new infection irrespective of this result, a PCR test or antigen test can be carried out. Alternatively, you can replicate the antibody test after several days. 

2. IgM positive, IgG negative

This implies that the infection is in the early phases of the ailment. It means that the patient can be contagious. 

If the results do not concur with the clinical depiction (meaning no symptoms have been observed), this could be a false positive. In such a scenario, results can be confirmed using a PCR test or in the case’s where a Rapid Antibody test was done, an ELISA test can be used as it tends to be more reliable and uses a divergent method. 

3. IgM positive, IgG positive

This implies that the infection is in the transitional stage of the disease. The patient is no longer viewed as contagious. 

4. IgM negative, IgG positive

This means that the patient is now fully recovering from the ailment and is no longer viewed as infectious.

There could be a registered immunity from covid-19, though it’s not established to what extent and for what duration the immunity can last. Irrespective of a positive covid-19 Antibody test, all the necessary precautions should be taken and adhered to. 

In Conclusion

The antibody test SAR-COV-2 may not be the simplest test to interpret. However, there is a significant positive to it. Health experts have found that the test on blood samples to check indications of past infections may be a vital step to computing the real death rate from covid-19 and approximating how close we are getting to “hard immunity. “