NHS Covid19 home testing research study.
Discussion
On Wednesday I received a letter from the NHS asking me if I would take part Covid19 testing research study.
They are going to send me a swab test kit and have it collected by courier. They will let me know the result within a week. The test will tell if I have had the Covid19 virus.
Filled in a short survey online and the kit will be with me in about a week.
I was chosen at random from the list of NHS patients registered with a GP.
Test kit arrived this morning. Well written instructions, you swab your both tonsils (or where they would be if you had them removed) then both nostrils.
The most difficult bit looks like assembling the flat packed cardboard box to send the swab back in!
I've got to do the swab within 7 days the only problem is that I've woken up this morning with sore and swollen throat which I'm guessing will need antibiotics.
I've emailed the help desk and will wait and see what they say.
They are going to send me a swab test kit and have it collected by courier. They will let me know the result within a week. The test will tell if I have had the Covid19 virus.
Filled in a short survey online and the kit will be with me in about a week.
I was chosen at random from the list of NHS patients registered with a GP.
Test kit arrived this morning. Well written instructions, you swab your both tonsils (or where they would be if you had them removed) then both nostrils.
The most difficult bit looks like assembling the flat packed cardboard box to send the swab back in!
I've got to do the swab within 7 days the only problem is that I've woken up this morning with sore and swollen throat which I'm guessing will need antibiotics.
I've emailed the help desk and will wait and see what they say.
As above, swab tests are for current infection. Once the antibody tests are routinely available, they will conducted on blood samples.
The Roche antibody test has been validated by PHE at Porton Down but alternative assays made by Abbott and DiaSorin will also likely be available soon.
NHS labs are currently making plans as to which assays they will use.
Availability of kits will likely be the main issue, as is still the case with the reagents required for swab testing.
The Roche antibody test has been validated by PHE at Porton Down but alternative assays made by Abbott and DiaSorin will also likely be available soon.
NHS labs are currently making plans as to which assays they will use.
Availability of kits will likely be the main issue, as is still the case with the reagents required for swab testing.
I got sent a NHS antibody home testing kit, part of a random survey with Imperial College London.
You do a home blood test to see if you have antibodies, the results appear within 10 mins, you enter the results on a website with your own code.
A swab test would be to see if you have the virus now.
At the end of March I had an illness, felt like utter crap although didn't need medial attention, just lots of paracetamol. 7 days of temperature/fever at night, feeling very tired, little appetite, after 4 days of this I couldn't taste or smell anything. Week 2 felt a little better, temperature down but had a cough, not too bad but not like any cough I've had before, still felt very weary, couldn't do much. Was better after 2 weeks with a slight lingering tiredness for another few days, then back to feeling fine, although still can't taste or smell properly even now. Wife got it too and is still waiting for sense of taste to fully return. Kids had it also I think, but it barely affected them.
I don't know if the test was sent to me completely randomly or because I signed up to the NHS blood plasma donation scheme.
Anyway, did the finger prick test, and got a positive line for the 'G' antibodies (longer lasting ones) which seems reasonable as I have been well for over 2 months now. They say these things are not 100% certain but I was fairly sure before that I'd had it, even more so now. I would have been somewhat annoyed if it had been negative as I then would wonder what the hell I had that laid me up for 2 weeks, I am lucky that I am rarely unwell.
I do marvel at how these tests are made, liking to know how all things work as I do.
Am aged 50, reasonably fit (cycle a lot) if anyone wondered.
You do a home blood test to see if you have antibodies, the results appear within 10 mins, you enter the results on a website with your own code.
A swab test would be to see if you have the virus now.
At the end of March I had an illness, felt like utter crap although didn't need medial attention, just lots of paracetamol. 7 days of temperature/fever at night, feeling very tired, little appetite, after 4 days of this I couldn't taste or smell anything. Week 2 felt a little better, temperature down but had a cough, not too bad but not like any cough I've had before, still felt very weary, couldn't do much. Was better after 2 weeks with a slight lingering tiredness for another few days, then back to feeling fine, although still can't taste or smell properly even now. Wife got it too and is still waiting for sense of taste to fully return. Kids had it also I think, but it barely affected them.
I don't know if the test was sent to me completely randomly or because I signed up to the NHS blood plasma donation scheme.
Anyway, did the finger prick test, and got a positive line for the 'G' antibodies (longer lasting ones) which seems reasonable as I have been well for over 2 months now. They say these things are not 100% certain but I was fairly sure before that I'd had it, even more so now. I would have been somewhat annoyed if it had been negative as I then would wonder what the hell I had that laid me up for 2 weeks, I am lucky that I am rarely unwell.
I do marvel at how these tests are made, liking to know how all things work as I do.
Am aged 50, reasonably fit (cycle a lot) if anyone wondered.
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