Jens Meyer / AP
A scientist presents an antibody test to use with a blood sample for the coronavirus at a laboratory in Jena, Germany. The test tells you if you were previously exposed to the virus and fought off the infection.
Friday, April 24, 2020 | 2 a.m.
As doctors in Las Vegas and around the world try to grapple the unknowns of the novel coronavirus, one area many are looking at is in our blood and what the antibodies we produce in our immune system can tell us about the way the virus is spreading.
University Medical Center officials say they will be launching antibody tests at the end of May in a move that experts hope will lead to better understanding of the virus’ behavior. UMC officials say the tests kits they're using have FDA Emergency Use Authorization approval from a trusted manufacturer.
Related content
“Antibody tests can tell you if you were infected (with the virus) in the past,” said Dr. Brian Labus, a UNLV expert on communicable disease surveillance, epidemiology, and outbreak investigation.
The tests likely won’t be used to diagnose COVID-19, said Dr. Shadaba Asad, UMC’s medical director of infectious disease. Instead, it will be used to track how the virus is moving within the population.
Earlier in the outbreak, those who were sick with mild COVID-like symptoms were told to stay home and weather out the illness on their own. This was during the tail-end of flu season, leaving some wondering what sort of illness they even had. Others may wonder if they were an asymptomatic carrier of the virus earlier in the year. Antibody tests could answer those questions.
“With that information, we can get an idea of what percent of our population has been infected,” Labus said.
Testing in New York City revealed that one in every five residents had COVID-19 antibodies in their system, indicating that as many as 2.7 million New Yorkers have already been infected.
The tests may also reveal who is immune to the virus, Asad said.
“If the person has antibodies, then the person might have protection or immunity against this infection, meaning if he or she were to be exposed to COVID-19 again, then they probably would not get the infection,” she said.
If it turns out a significant segment of the Las Vegas population has already been infected, it makes it much easier to justify backing off shutdown measures, Labus said.
“But if it’s a lower percent, that means there are many who are still susceptible to the virus, and we’ll have to approach our reopening differently,” he said.
Asad believes the testing will prove even more crucial for health care workers, who are on the front lines treating patients infected with the disease. She said they would likely be the first ones to get the test once it's available.
“It provides a lot of peace of mind to the health care providers when they know they’ve had the infection and are now immune to further infection,” she said.
While the possibility of more antibody tests may prove crucial in determining immunity, it doesn’t indicate the length of time someone is immune once they’re recovered.
“We don’t know anything about COVID-19 yet as far as immunity is concerned,” she said. “But with most infections, the presence of an antibody implies that you are immune to reinfection, but we don’t know that for a fact about this disease yet.”
The testing itself is also problematic, said Dr. Marc Kahn, dean of the UNLV School of Medicine. “There are some available tests that unfortunately have a high percentage of false positives and false negatives.”
About 90 mostly Chinese-based companies got the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell these tests in the United States. But none of these tests received any government vetting.
The virus still being so new will leave many of these questions open ended for the time being, Asad said.
“Some of these questions frustrate me as well,” she said. “Only time will tell.”
