Antibody test

[Blown2CV]

Has anybody paid for one of these? I’ve felt like st for months, tinnitus, extreme tiredness, some other things. Just trying to sort of explore what it could be, alongside some medical investigations etc.

[67Dino]

I bought a Cerascreen antibody test last July. All very reassuringly medical and professional, arriving nicely packaged with clear instructions, and then result comes back via an app you download.

No idea how accurate it is (mine suggested I’d only had manflu) but can’t fault the service.

[Davetheraver]

Waste of Time and money. People who had positive covid tests earlier last year were already showing negative for antibodies by the summer

[Blown2CV]

So have they generally been deemed useless then?

[Davetheraver]

Yes

[Hereward]

My tests were effective.

I had Covid end-March 2020 and this was confirmed by an antibody test in mid-May.

In the interests of science I took another test in mid-November 2020 which was again positive for the presence of antibodies.

I imagine there are many tests available and it's important to choose a quality one. Mine were the Abbott Labs and Roche test kits/methodology, I believe, using blood samples I prepared at home and posted to a London lab.

Does anyone happen to know yet if antibodies developed in March/April 2020 can confer protection/immunity to the new strains that are being reported?

[Blown2CV]

I guess in my case though a negative test could be genuinely negative or just too long ago to still have antibodies in which case it doesn’t give any info. Ah well.

[DaveH23]

I had one done but was contacted by the NHS Blood Donation service for it.

Turns out my Antibodies weren't high enough for what they were looking for.

[MrGman]

Hereward said:

Does anyone happen to know yet if antibodies developed in March/April 2020 can confer protection/immunity to the new strains that are being reported?

https://youtu.be/M3kQoyCCLmY

[67Dino]

Blown2CV said:

I guess in my case though a negative test could be genuinely negative or just too long ago to still have antibodies in which case it doesn’t give any info. Ah well.

No antibody test is going to be 100% accurate, but not sure you should take Davetheraver’s comment as your only data point. Early studies were less clear but a number of recent scientific studies have concluded that antibodies last 6 months and may last longer.

This one from Science Immunology in December states ‘definitively’ they last 8 months:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/1...

This BBC article quotes an Oxford hospital study concluding 6 months plus:
www.bbc.com/news/amp/health-55022287

My own approach in buying a test was that if it comes out negative I haven’t learnt anything concrete, but if it comes out positive I have. Hence I thought it was worth the modest outlay of £70.

Edited by 67Dino on Saturday 9th January 08:45

[Hereward]

Thank you GMan.