Minnesota Department of Health officials have been wary of them, but there are a growing number of opportunities to get an antibody test.
The blood tests show if your body has produced an immune response to COVID-19.
MDH had warned of a wide range of specificity and sensitivity of tests on the market, and urged consumers to do research -- basically, not all tests are created equal.
But they could be becoming more accessible.
North Memorial is offering one produced by Siemens for $53. The Minnesota Red Cross is collecting plasma from blood donors who’ve tested positive for convalescent plasma.
“Doctors can order the antibody test to see if we really are dealing with an acute infection and the PCR test is just negative because the infection’s been going on for longer,” Dr. Katy VanPatten, general pathologist at North Memorial and Maplegrove Hospital, said.
VanPatten said the tests are helpful to identify people to donate convalescent plasma as a treatment for COVID-19 patients, to see if children displaying symptoms indeed had COVID-19 and therefore multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or if you’re just curious.
“I have to admit, I actually tested myself, too, because I was curious if I was sick, so curiosity might be another reason a person gets it to find out because with everything that’s going on, more information is good to have,” she said.
Other than those reasons, an antibody test is probably not necessary. A UK study found that immunity from COVID-19 doesn’t last more than a few months.
Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the tests have progressed since the outset of the pandemic, but she and Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann said they don’t offer more than a yes or no response.
“That’s really the challenge with antibody testing is, certainly it can tell a person, ‘You have antibodies or not,’ and that may be useful, but we don’t know if the level of antibody is sufficient to provide protection and we don’t know how long that protection lasts,” Ehresmann said.
