Reply With QuoteI'm trying to get an appointment for one as I type this. There's a 65 minute wait time on the phone.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52656808
A test to find out whether people have been infected with coronavirus in the past has been approved by health officials in England.
Public Health England said the antibody test, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, was a "very positive development".
The blood test looks for antibodies to see if a person has already had the virus and might now have some immunity.
Until now, officials have said such tests are not reliable enough.
The government previously spent a reported £16m buying antibody tests which later proved to be ineffective.
Sources told the BBC the Roche test was the first one to offer serious potential.
Antibodies are made by our immune system as it learns to fight an infection.
Finding antibodies that attack the coronavirus show that person has been infected in the past, but they do not prove they are protected against it in the future.
Experts at the government's Porton Down facility evaluated the Roche test last week, Public Health England said.
Roche found that if someone had been infected, it gave the correct result 100% of the time.
If someone had not caught coronavirus then it gave the correct result more than 99.8% of the time.
It means fewer than two in 1,000 healthy people would be incorrectly told they had previously caught the coronavirus.
I'm trying to get an appointment for one as I type this. There's a 65 minute wait time on the phone.
The accuracy rate of this test is really encouraging, a while back it was being reported that such a test was much further away. This test may give us a clue on how long people can remain immune (if they are indeed immune) to the virus after recovering. It could tell us how many people have been exposed without symptoms.Originally Posted by life on mars
Good luck NYC Blue
There is great hope here, the only downside is re infection of the virus could only be be established after many months .
Don't you live in NYC?!
Well done the pharmaceutical industry, and Roche in particular. At the end of the day this industry is often criticised, but they are the ones that produce the goods. HIV, manageable with drugs, same with lots of other diseases from arthritis through to cancer.
And they, if anyone, will produce a vaccine for Covid.
Eventually they will build a database of people known to harbour antibodies as a result of infection (whether with or without symptoms). I would expect that a sample of this database will continue to receive regular tests to see if they have are reinfected with covid. Eventually, a rate of reinfection can be established, together with a timeframe for immunity.
Personally, I'm not too sure if me knowing I had covid-19 without symptoms (for example) would make much difference to my life. I think it is more important that people on the front line are tested, and that they continue to receive tests to establish re-infection.
Essentially, this test will provide a lot more data that should help in learning more about the virus.
“Public Health England said the antibody test, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, was a "very positive development".
This is same company with whom the WAG had signed contract for PPE
Will this test be for England only?
Will we have to wait until them down the Bay decide that we need a separate contract only to be gazumped by Mozambique who offered more £
And then we find we can’t get any until December at the earliest
The deal is likely to be UK wide.
The same company that said no such contract existed and asked WAG to produce it, it which they never did.
I know you are well intentioned but I don’t think we should hold our breath on this
It has very little to do with my intentions. It has everything to do with the UK Government's intentions, together with the devolved nations. The deal is likely to be UK wide so let's see before prejudging the Senedd to be useless tossers. You could always revert to plan B and claim I work there.
Wales to 'take advantage' of any UK antibody deal
Dr Goodall says he is hopeful Wales could take advantage of any deal on antibody testing brokered by the UK government.
He said officials in Wales would be involved in UK-wide discussions later this afternoon and he was sure there would be an announcement on the matter in due course.
He welcomed progress on the development of a possible antibody test but reminded the public that a positive antibody test would not mean that individuals had immunity from the virus.
The test, which finds out whether people have been infected with coronavirus in the past, has been approved by health officials in England.
He said: “First of all there is a need to check and validate any testing regime to make sure that the accuracy is there that is necessary, and secondly, there would need to be a commercial arrangement in place to deploy that.
"Hopefully we can take advantage of a UK deal in place for that if it comes through.”
That's a worrying sentence in the light of other things. But if the government is paying for it from treasury funds then it should be for all of UK. If NHS England is paying we could be in the kacky poo.
Let's wait for the announcements before getting our knickers in a twist.
Drakeford will balls it up somehow
No it isn’t. Quite the opposite.
No it isn’t. Quite the opposite.
What is “likely” is that multiple parties will be awarded contracts to provide testing with variances in the devolved nations and within individual nations based on many different criteria.
What criteria are they based on?
Drakeford is the new Dave Jones....
Are you Mark Drakeford in disguise ?
The Roche product is the one that has been approved and that's the one we will use whether purchased UK wide or individually by each of the 4 countries.
The issue is how to run the tests. Each needs an individual iV sample which will have to be taken by a doctor, nurse or phlebotomist. That'll take time as I imagine most will be done at GP surgeries. Then the sample has to go to a lab, either NHS, private or a mix. Finally the results have to be posted.
An update.... Abbott Laboratories have just had their test approved as well, so likely that the NHS will purchase both theirs and Roche to secure supplies
What are the details on their test?
Didn't they have issues with their other tests missing positive covid 19 cases?
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