I'm a viral immunologist. Here's what antibody tests for Covid-19 tell us
From serology to T-cells, there's still a lot we don't know about how immunity to coronavirus works
The sheer speed with which Covid-19 spread across the world, coupled with the novel nature of the virus, has meant that scientists and technicians have been playing a game of catch-up. But our knowledge, though incomplete, is now much greater than it was at the start of the outbreak, and medical systems are better equipped to respond.
Part of this means we've got better at testing for the disease - attempting to meet the demands of people who want to know if they are, or have been, infected. Dr Alex Richter leads the clinical immunology labs at the University of Birmingham, where I work, and her team has developed serology tests that detect antibodies to Sars-CoV-2. For the time being, laboratory tests such as theirs are more sensitive than commercial antibody kits. But an increasing number of the latter are becoming available around the world, many of them over the counter.
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