How SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests work?

How do the ten thousand SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests work?

"We tested them on 40 samples on Sunday and they work well." The results are in 15 minutes but as they detect antibodies they are good in patients when they have already developed them, so they are not valid for incipient symptoms or the first days of infection.

What differentiates them from the Ministry's antigen tests to do to the entire population?

—The detection time is similar, both are fast. The antigen also works at the beginning of the disease but then loses effectiveness and the percentage of positives it detects drops. Its effectiveness is 70%.

Are none 100% reliable?

—False negatives are everywhere but PCR is more reliable, generally if it fails it is because the sampling has not been done well. If there is a very clear suspicion and it is negative, the test is repeated.

In the end, the symptoms of the coronavirus seem clear ...

—When many cases are analyzed, you see that the condition has a wide repertoire, the same thing happens with the flu. From the respiratory point of view or with lung involvement, it differs quite well from the rest, but this is not the case in most cases; the mild ones have more varied symptoms.

Why have you disagreed in testing everyone?

- Right now, the important thing to respond to healthcare needs is to diagnose those who are really ill and assure health personnel. At the population level, it is good that we get an idea of ​​its incidence, but more to document ourselves than to respond to medical necessity. There are tests that we can apply later to see how many people have passed the disease because these antibodies persist in the body.

Who overcomes the disease is immunized?

- It is not known how long they are in the body but the average term is months and even years. Another thing is how protective these antibodies are.

Will it be enough until the arrival of a vaccine?

"Vaccines take time, there are many groups working on it in the world, but there will not be a vaccine that can be used en masse before the year." The antibody is used to treat and the vaccine to prevent.

What is the level of work in the Microbiology laboratory?

-We have put shifts of five or six people to diagnose morning, afternoon and night from Monday to Sunday. The whole service is overturned, we do more than 400 tests daily but we have the capacity to do a thousand. We are doing all that arrive in 24 hours.

Before they thought that there was only contagion when symptoms occurred. And now?

—There are asymptomatic people who carry the virus and who can transmit it, there are.

The million dollar question: where is the Balearic Islands on the epidemic curve?

—My impression is that it is starting to decrease, the number of new cases has decreased since a couple of days. It will have to be confirmed.

It was said that this was one more virus, have all the forecasts failed?

—The prognosis failed but it was always made clear that it was an unknown virus and the scene of the epidemic was there even though no one was betting on it. It is more transmissible than we thought and it started sooner than was said.