SUPPORT
What are antibodies and what do they tell me?
Antibodies are part of the immune response to all diseases. After exposure to a virus or bacteria, the body produces antibodies specific to that pathogen, which contribute to our immunity to germs. This is also true for coronavirus. Most people who have been exposed to coronavirus will produce antibodies against it. By testing for the presence of SARS-CoV2 specific antibodies, you can find out whether you have been infected with coronavirus, even if you have not had any symptoms.
Does the presence of antibodies mean that I cannot catch COVID19 again?
While we do not know how long immunity to COVID19 lasts after infection, studies on related coronaviruses which cause common colds have shown that immunity is maintained for at 12 months in most cases (1), and to date, the number of people who have caught COVID19 twice remains very low (e.g. only 50 suspected cases of reinfection in the Netherlands (2), with almost 500,000 confirmed COVID19 cases overall (3).
Therefore, we highly recommend our COVID19 IgG/IgM antibody test
if you want to know whether you have been exposed to coronavirus and/or you carry Covid19 (IgG/IgM) antibodies.
Sources:
(1) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1
(2) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/more-people-are-getting-covid-19-twice-suggesting-immunity-wanes-quickly-some
(3) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/netherlands/
Picture: https://www.freepik.com/vectors/background'>Background vector created by Harryarts - www.freepik.com