Bund now also allows for simpler antibody tests.
Feldkirch There is good news for those who have recovered from Covid-19 and those who have received Covid-19 who want to be sure that they have made antibodies. From now on, simpler antibody tests are also permitted in order to be exempt from the obligation to test for at least three months. So far, as reported, the complex and not mass-market neutralizing antibody tests have been required. For the head of pathology at the Feldkirch State Hospital, Primary Felix Offner, it was clear from the start that such tests would have to come. “It was just a question of when we could do it,” he said in the UN conversation. “Now the Ministry of Health has made a decision, and I am very happy about it, because it also takes courage.”
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Test costs of just under 30 euros
However, a confirmed antibody test is only valid for three months. The reason: “We still do not know exactly how long the antibodies are really effective.” The estimates are that SARS-CoV-2 viruses cause an immune reaction that works for about half a year, possibly even longer, but this assumption is not guaranteed in individual cases. In practice, for example, family doctors take blood from the patient and send it to the pathology department or the central laboratory in Feldkirch, where the tests are then carried out. The test costs in the laboratory are just under 30 euros and have to be paid out of your own pocket. So far, according to Offner, very few antibody tests have been requested, but with the change in the legal situation, he expects a sharp increase in the near future.
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Played it safe
The Institute for Pathology in Feldkirch has two test procedures established by senior physician Richard Stockinger, head of the Infection Serology Laboratory. There is a simpler, classic antibody test and, in special cases, a so-called surrogate virus neutralization test. According to Primar Offner, the results of both antibody tests correlate to a very high degree with the results of a neutralization test. The specialists in Feldkirch played it safe with both test procedures. Some of the defined patient samples were sent to the Institute of Virology at the Medical University of Vienna for a classic neutralization test, while the experts in Feldkirch carried out their own tests with another part. “Then we compared how the results matched,” explained Offner. Only then were the tests released for patient use.
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Antibody tests do not look for the virus, but for antibodies that are circulating in the blood. Antibodies are only detectable about two to six weeks after an illness. As with neutralization tests, the detection of these antibodies gives an indication of immunity to Sars-Cov-2. However, only findings from antibody tests on which the respective laboratory confirms that a test method with a corresponding correlation to the neutralization test was used to detect the antibodies are valid.
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