Antibody test approved in the UK!

[Biscuit0110]

Fantastic news to wake up to this morning.

The antibody test has been approved in the UK, it is a 100% accurate and will be rolled out 'within weeks'.

This will be a game changer for the whole country, I can not wait to have one (very ill in February) will you be taking one?
Is this how we are going to get back on track? Combine with the track and trace app and we may just have a coherent science based route back to normality.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-new-100-accurate-covid-19-antibody-test-approved-for-use-in-uk-11987924

jas you can order one now. Secondly apart from the healthcare service, there are a great many other professions that would be benefit greatly, not to mention those in isolation or over 70 and staring at an indefinite period of lockdown even after the rest of the public has been released. It would also create confidence in those testing positive to work/support the economy.

How is any antibody test a "Game changer" ?

I'd assume that mass testing will provide a lot of data on what percentage of people create antibodies after being ill.
I'm not a scientist but I'd assume that more data is always good news.

orange do you have a link please to order one for those that would like to?

Not the Roche one but this is the Abbot one

bluehorizonbloodtests.co.uk/collections/covid-19-coronavirus-tests

I would definitely like to take the Roche test when it's available. Both my husband and I were hospitalised with pneumonia at the very end of jan. it sprang from no where came on very fast. Doctors couldn't understand how we both had it, both healthy, active, no underlying conditions and only 40.

Is there any conclusive evidence about immunity from having antibodies though

This is a bit of great news gratefully received today.

The antibody test once available will be under 10 pounds in the UK. The other test is available but it is 119 dollars

Confused now, isn't a significant amount of blood required? so you need to go to your GP etc?

But the math doesn't stack up, Roche say they can do high double digit production, to produce 250m tests for everyone in europe, out of a population of 500m) so will take 3 to 5 months before it is widely available plus as it needs a HCP to take it and an automated system of checking results (which the UK hasn't got) just don't see how the general public will get one done.

I'd assume that mass testing will provide a lot of data on what percentage of people create antibodies after being ill.
I'm not a scientist but I'd assume that more data is always good news

Agree, just don't see how it is a game changer though.

Being able to track and trace new infections is what will be a game changer, an antibody test is like knowing the stable door is open after the horse has bolted.

I want this one. We went to China at the end of October on holiday and both came back really ill. I had a cough for months. I l know it's supposedly too early but I have wondered ever since.

Scuse if this has already been asked but has anybody had an 'invitation' through the post for their household to take part in an antibody test study?

I tried to go on the website to sign up but it doesn't come up when I search

A point of contact test is really needed to allow huge numbers to be tested.

This Roche test doesn't look likely to be rolled out in huge numbers as it will be very expensive with clinicians involved in taking blood samples which are then sent to the lab plus a wait for results. The government need to think carefully through how this would work and who would be tested before commiting huge amounts of money.

There are other point of care tests being developed both for antibody and antigen testing.

The Roche test will not be a home test, as apart from needing a blood draw from health professional, it also needs to be analysed using a machine only found in hospitals/labs. Test takes 18 minutes to run.

It's benefit is largely dependent on whether the antibodies confer immunity - but that's also true of the vaccine.

Demand will be global, so it will take time to get. However Roche also had huge demand for Tamiflu, and ended up partnering with several other manufacturing companies, so possibly they'd do that again.

Outside of testing HCPs and other key workers, I think it could be useful for travel. Countries such as Hong Kong have incredible procedures in place for entry (incredible as in - I can't believe they doing this, not incredible as in - how wonderful!). They are already doing testing on arrival (takes 8 hours), and then tagging with an electronic bracelet while you are quarantined for 14 days (accommodation provided and run by the state, and paid for by you).

If they could run this test, it could save them needing to quarantine anyone who has had it - and possibly open the country up again to visitors as only residents are allowed in at the moment.
Hong Kong have had only four deaths in total from this and only two community cases in the last 24 days.

It would also be incredibly useful to have a point of care antigen test before, for example, boarding a plane, entering a crowded building for an event, etc.
If people could be tested on the spot and given an accurate result it would be amazingly reassuring for all.

I still think that at present such test is only useful for getting an overall snapshot for a specific area/country. The results on their own don’t mean much. You might have had it but have no antibodies to show for it. You might present antibodies but it doesn’t mean you won’t get it again.
Testing of confirmed patients who have recovered would be the staring point to try and get a picture of what recovered patients present.
Then random area testing where results are viewed based on conclusion of the above.
Once we know what immunity is provided by presence of antibodies, then a home test would give reassurance or a degree of freedom.

"Priority should be health care workers and carers in care homes, followed by residents in care homes, key workers, teachers, children due to return to school."

There was a scientist today on the BBC news. He has said that we now know that not everyone becomes immune (if anyone). Unfortunately once again, those that are ill/frail/elderly may not build immunity at all, or lose it very quickly, but this test will show whose making antibodies. That is useful for statistical purposes. We can then study various groups.

This virus doesn't infect equally and there may be an ever present risk to some groups. It won't follow that these tests should or will be used on the care home population, because they may lose immunity quickly. The younger, healthier population has to remove their risk.

He said Boris Johnson was wrong to call these a game changer, they are just another useful tool, at the moment.

Out of 100 people who thought that they had Covid, only 10% have been shown to tested positive. That includes medical staff. Apparently we have had some very nasty other viruses about since November last year.

What he has said today has really disappointed me, I'm in the shielding group and once we are in phase 3 we will remove social distancing. Which will make winter very worrying.

"Testing of confirmed patients who have recovered would be the staring point to try and get a picture of what recovered patients present"

That's what they are doing across Europe and we are all sharing the results. Europe has had these tests now for a couple of weeks.

We don't want the results rushed because we have had female cancer tests compromised and women die, in the past.

Germany, 5 million tests (and other eu countries) have already ordered millions of test kits.

UK hasn't... we are still negotiating, odd, as we went ahead and ordered millions of an unapproved test but not the CE approved one.

So whatever the benefits of this test, the UK is once again at the back of the queue.

People who tested negative should also be priority, given the ridiculously huge false neg rate, which must have got even higher with the self done swabs 🙄

I can't get excited about it. Maybe its because I'm not very scientific or maybe because I've just given up a bit now. I really can't see anything positive happening, I'm a bit fed up of getting my hopes up now.

It might help long term once lots of people have been tested and they can research data, but any actual change due to this is a long way off I fear.

Really would like it to be a positive and it could help get things moving more towards normal soon, but I just don't want to be disappointed.

The Abbott one is £99 and £49 for NHS workers for which you have to upload a photo of your NHS ID at checkout - mine was shipped two days ago so am impatiently waiting for it to arrive. The Abbott test is apparently 100% accurate for sensitivity in identifying antibodies to Covid-19 at 14 days after onset of Covid-19 symptoms, and 99.63% specific. I don't work for them, I'm just copying and pasting what it says on the website I ordered mine from! The main link is here:
www.privatecoronavirustests.com and the NHS worker link is: www.privatecoronavirustests.com/product/igg-antibody-test-nhs

Ponoka7 Your comment is very interesting and I am not at all familiar with this issue.
Unless I completely miss-read...
So wouldn’t this be a really serious problem with the overall testing process in the UK if we are afraid to start the ball rolling and even get stuck in?
Does this mean we are that incapable? If there were serious mistakes in the past, did we not learn from them and implemented a clearer process?
Or would other countries be liable to make mistakes like these so the overall result has to account for x% of mistakes?
Is it human error, incorrect/unclear processes, weak technology, poor facilities, lack of trained specialists who can complete the testing?
I’m all for being cautious but crisis calls for sharp minds and quick action especially if a particular testing method is deemed the most accurate of its day.
Antibody testing is a very important tool in mapping where we are, where we might have been, it would create a very useful set if data.

Is it this test?
www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/05/13/study-raises-doubts-over-effectiveness-of-abbott-laboratories-rapid-coronavirus-test/#4fd446571de2

No, I made that mistake too! That's the test for active infection. The Abbott antibody test has just been approved by PHE.

@Branster, at the start of testing for Covid, Nurses were reporting that their tests had been compromised, but tjey wasn't told in the timescale wete they could do another one. That meant that many had to continue to isolate for 14 days. Other HPs were saying that they were being told that the batch of tests used were displaying a larhe amount of false negatives, tbere was also mix ups. There wasn't an issue with those teasts, just the process of testing and giving the results.

Boris and even ministers last night were still calling the antibody test as a game changer, even though every scientist is saying that they aren't. Even JV Tam in the press conference last night was saying that. But the government seems to have decided they are and are ignoring that they aren't. Which is a concern and you've got to question the agenda behind that.

Boris and Rabb are sitting right next to each other in Parliament. We had Neil Ferguson assume that he was immune. I'm wary at the government's enthusiasm for these tests. Are they going to be used to get the country, including tourism and sport back too soon? How rushed are these going to be? How will the results be used? Boris seems to think work can continue as usual as long as the person is making antibodies. How quick will mistakes in testing be discovered?

I think that we can safely say that we can't put our trust in the government. The chief medical officers are turning into nodding dogs.