Antibody tests pick up more virus cases which had gone undetected

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Monday, announced the antibody tests initiated by the agency last week had picked up several people who contracted and recovered from the new coronavirus unbeknown to them.

HPA had initiated antibody tests for the purposes of a research into the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Maldives.

Sun questioned HPA epidemiologist Dr. Nazla Rafeeq regarding the antibody tests at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) press briefing on Monday night.

Dr. Nazla said the HPA continued to conduct antibody tests, and were targeting migrant workers in congested labor quarters in Male’ for the tests. She said that some of those who were tested had antibodies, meaning they had contracted the new coronavirus in the recent past.

“We are looking for two types of antibodies. IgM antibodies test positive within 10 days after contracting the virus. This shows a person contracted the virus very recently. The second is the IgG. IgG means the person has now recovered from the disease. We have found antibodies in the tests we have conducted so far,” she said.

Dr. Nazla said that some of the people tested from labor quarters showed IgM antibodies as well as IgG antibodies.

PCR tests show people who have the virus in their system, while an antibody tests show whether a person had contracted the virus in the recent past but had recovered, even if the PCR tests show the person not be infected.

Dr. Nazla said that she was unable to comment on the extent to which virus cases may have gone undetected to until the agency tests a sufficient number of samples.

She said the HPA will release the results of the antibody tests after it collects samples from all the locations.

“I can only comment as to the percentage of people who had contracted the virus after we collect the samples from all the locations and receive the results,” said Dr. Nazla.