We probably all know someone who's '90% sure I had coronavirus' a while back, but missed out on definitive confirmation because tests weren't widely available at that point. Well, now there's a way to find out.
Antibody tests, previously hailed as a "game-changer" by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, detect whether certain antibodies are present in a person's blood sample, and can reveal whether or not they've previously contracted COVID-19. The virus leaves antibodies (a form of protein in the blood) in its wake, after they spring into action to help the immune system fight it off. If you have coronavirus antibodies, you are believed to have some level of immunity against the new disease (although this doesn't necessarily mean you're immune forever).
Earlier this month, Public Health England (PHE) approved one particular antibody test for widespread use in the NHS. Created by healthcare company Roche, there is currently no confirmed date for when it will be rolled out across the country's health service, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently said the government was in "the closing stages of commercial negotiations". Meanwhile, another company - Abbott Laboratories - has produced an alternative antibody test, which has also been approved by PHE but is not the one being used by the NHS.
Superdrug announced this week that it would become the first high street retailer to sell the antibody test (although some other retailers including private medical practices have already been selling them). Priced at £69, customers use a pin-prick test to extract droplets of blood, and send them off for analysis in the lab. Results can be expected just a couple of days later.
The Superdrug test is said to have 100% specificity, which means it cannot give a false positive (ie, it can't say you've had coronavirus if you haven't). It may, however, occasionally give you a false negative (suggesting you haven't had COVID-19 when you have) but this is only thought to occur in about 2.5% of tests.
The Superdrug website crashed yesterday with so many people trying to get on to purchase, however NHS England's medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, has warned against buying commercial tests. "I would caution against using any tests... without knowing quite how good those tests are," he said.
Superdrug's healthcare director, Michael Henry, insists the company is "confident of [the test's] accuracy and reliability" - but it doesn't sound as if the NHS' medical director is quite so convinced.
Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing yesterday, Professor Powis did confirm that "Public Health England have been evaluating the new antibody tests, the commercial tests that are becoming available." However, the expert said some uncertainties remain.
"Once you have the virus, the body's immune system develops antibodies against it and it's those antibodies that are detected typically a number of weeks after you've had the virus," said the NHS medical director. "What we don't absolutely know at the moment is whether having antibodies and having the antibodies that are tested in those tests means that you won't get the virus again.
"So I wouldn't want people to think just because you test positive for the antibody that it necessarily means that you can do something different in terms of social distancing, in the way you behave. Because until we are absolutely sure about the relationship between the positive antibody test and immunity, I think we as scientists would say we need to tread cautiously going further forward."
So should you buy an antibody test from a commercial retailer? It seems that one's up to you...
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Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.
