Antibody assessments at the moment are out there in Ontario however well being specialists and personal labs are reminding sufferers {that a} optimistic check doesn’t suggest somebody is immune — we nonetheless do not know if SARS-CoV-2 antibodies shield all folks from getting COVID-19 once more or from spreading it to others.
LifeLabs grew to become the most recent business lab in Ontario to begin testing sufferers for antibodies on Nov. 23. Dynacare has been providing SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing in Ontario since Sept. 8, a spokesperson mentioned Monday. Since August, the corporate has carried out about 10,000 assessments in Quebec and Ontario, half throughout the final month alone.
Each the serology assessments provided by the businesses don’t detect an lively COVID-19 an infection however as a substitute use blood samples to search for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
The assessments promise to present some folks a solution as as to if that persistent cough or scratchy throat just a few months again was probably COVID-19, however could not provide a lot perception past that.
COVID-19 immunity stays murky
Marc-André Langlois, a College of Ottawa professor and Canada analysis chair in molecular virology and intrinsic immunity, mentioned whereas a earlier COVID-19 an infection seemingly does present some immunity, it is not clear how strong a safety that gives or how lengthy it lasts.
Ottawa Public Well being advises anybody who assessments optimistic for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to proceed to practise bodily distancing and different pandemic well being measures. (Marijan Murat/AP)
“The scientific proof is now displaying that in the event you’ve been uncovered and you have made antibodies, there is a good likelihood that you may be protected not less than within the quick time period,” he mentioned.
“What nobody is aware of, at this stage, is how lengthy this safety from the antibodies will final.”
The safety might span just a few months or presumably as much as a yr, he mentioned. What’s extra, it is not clear what safety truly appears to be like like.
“We all know reinfections can occur, they have been documented,” mentioned Langlois, including that even when a affected person had delicate signs the primary time round, they could not have the identical consequence once more.
It is also potential the antibodies is not going to present what’s known as sterilizing immunity, the place recovered sufferers can’t move on a virus to others, he mentioned. In different phrases, somebody with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies should have the ability to unfold COVID-19.
‘We’re coping with nuances’
Ottawa Public Well being recommends that anybody who assessments optimistic for antibodies proceed to train regular COVID-19 precautions, like bodily distancing and masks sporting, and to not take a relaxed strategy.
Public Well being Ontario advises towards the usage of antibody testing for figuring out the immune standing of sufferers.
Langlois does not envy public well being officers who should each acknowledge that antibodies do appear to supply a point of safety however not sufficient for folks to let their guards down.
“We’re coping with nuances,” he mentioned. “That’s the concern right here, [an antibody test] offers folks with a false sense of safety.”
The price of SARS-CoV-2 antibody assessments are charged on to sufferers in Ontario. OHIP solely covers the price of assessments in uncommon circumstances. (AP)
Prices of the assessments
A SARS-CoV-2 antibody check at LifeLabs prices $75 whereas a check at Dynacare prices $70 and each can be found in Ontario with a physician’s referral. The businesses acknowledge on their web sites {that a} optimistic antibody check doesn’t imply a affected person has immunity to COVID-19.
In some circumstances, Ontario Well being Insurance coverage Plan (OHIP) pays for the antibody check, corresponding to in youngsters with multisystem inflammatory syndrome and sufferers with extreme sickness who’ve examined unfavourable for COVID-19 repeatedly, and the place an antibody check can be a “useful adjunctive device,” Public Well being Ontario says.
For probably the most correct outcomes, LifeLabs recommends sufferers get examined between three and 4 weeks after signs or potential COVID-19 publicity however mentioned antibodies have been discovered months after an infection.
Dynacare says sufferers can get examined 14 days or extra after an preliminary an infection.
