Page 5 - IDEA Serologicke testy COVID19 duben2020 15

IDEA anti COVID-19 # 15
Serological tests for Covid-19 antibodies:
What could they be good for? 3 APRIL 2020
Ludmila Matysková4
Summary
• There are two kinds of tests for Covid-19. The first kind are PCR diagnostic tests, which reveal whether, at the moment of testing, the individual in question has the virus in their body or not. These tests are able to identify the presence of viral RNA in any sample of tissue or bodily fluid, or from a swab. The second kind of tests are antibody (serological) tests, which indicate whether the individual in question has previously been infected with the virus. Since antibodies only begin to be formed in the body a certain amount of time after an infection, serological tests are entirely unsuitable for those diagnostic purposes aimed to reveal the illness in its early stages. Serological antibody tests are, however, very important for finding out and confirming who has already gone through the infection. Serological tests measure IgM antibodies, formed in the early stages of the immune response, and IgG memory antibodies, formed in the later stages. This study looks in detail at the possible uses for serological tests.
• The main benefit of serological tests lies in the possibility of collecting information, which is currently still missing, but which is essential for informing our policy decisions in adopting optimal strategies to fight the Covid-19 epidemic. Serological testing could provide us with representative data, from which we can reliably detect what percentage of the population has
3 This study represents the author’s opinion and not the official position of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Economics Institute nor of the Charles University Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) or of the University of Bonn. The author is not an epidemiologist, doctor or microbiologist. The study may therefore contain errors as a result of her imperfect knowledge in these fields. Thanks are due to Štěpán Jurajda, Pavel Kocourek, Jana Lohrová and Jakub Steiner for their useful comments on the working version of this text, to Adam Jaroš, Hana Kaněrová and Josef Šilha for providing medical expertise, and to Daniel Münich for his help with editing the text. Any inaccuracies or errors are the author’s responsibility. The study was produced with the support of the Czech Academy of Sciences as part of its AV21 Strategy programme, the Experientia Foundation, and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant CRC TR 224 (project B02).
4 University of Bonn, lmatysko@uni-bonn.de
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