Emory University has developed an antibody blood test that could help healthcare professionals better understand the coronavirus.
Right now, it’s still very hard to get tested for COVID-19. You either must be very sick, elderly, or a healthcare worker, but Emory doctors are working to change all of that with a simple blood test.
Antibodies are part of how our bodies naturally fight off a virus. If scientists and doctors can figure out which ones protect against COVID-19, it could be the key to finding a treatment.
Emory Infectious Disease Doctor Aneesh Mehta says all it takes is one vial of blood to find out if someone has had the virus, no matter how severe or mild their symptoms were.
He says this test is extremely sensitive and specific to COVID-19, so if someone tests positive for antibodies, then doctors will know that person did become infected with the novel coronavirus.
“If we detect antibodies, we can tell people if they’ve been exposed. That’s a really important question for people to know,” Dr. Mehta said. “At this point we’re not sure how protective and how long this protection of these antibodies will last, but we do think in the coming weeks we’ll know that information and we’ll be able to offer that to our patients and our healthcare workers.”
This alone, Dr. Mehta said, will be helpful in figuring out how widespread the virus really is.
“We have a slow ramp-up of our diagnostic test for COVID-19, therefore we were not able to detect the community spread that was occurring,” he said. “We’ll be able to explore in our communities throughout Georgia and throughout the country who has been impacted, which communities have really seen this infection even if they weren’t sick enough to come into the hospital.”
Once they send the blood to the lab, Emory says they’ll be able to get results within 24 hours.
Initially, testing will be available only to Emory Healthcare inpatients, certain groups of outpatients, healthcare providers and staff members, but will then be expanded significantly. The tests are being carried out by the Clinical Immunology section of Emory Medical Laboratories (EML). Emory will begin testing at a rate of 300 people per day, with plans to scale up over several weeks.
The nasal swab tests that recently became available only tested for the presence of active COVID-19 infection and could not detect potential immunity.
“The results from these antibody tests will have important implications for determining our next steps in responding to this pandemic,” Roback says.
Are you all excited for these new developments in the fight against COVID-19?
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