I have antibodies - now what

Grumpy_chap

I thought if you've had coronavirus and now have anti-bodies, they are keeping you in a secure unit and taking your blood to extract the plasma as a treatment for those currently in hospital with coronavirus.

JamoLew

Grumpy_chap said:

I thought if you've had coronavirus and now have anti-bodies, they are keeping you in a secure unit and taking your blood to extract the plasma as a treatment for those currently in hospital with coronavirus.

Sounds like the plot to some weird horror film -- I think there is the option for this, but haven't really seen much info about how to go about it

General_Grant

JamoLew said:

So we were tested last week and myself and several colleagues were informed that we had a positive test for antibodies.
Great - so now what ?
is this just a big information gathering exercise and is there no real benefit in knowing whether you have antibodies or not.
It is still not proven (as far as I know) that the presence of antibodies:

a) grants any level of immunity short or long term
AND/OR
b) excludes you from carrying the virus at anytime in the future

Answers, and your interest, seem to be about personal benefit to yourself.
You seem (and I may be wrong here) to think that a "big information gathering exercise" is pointless.
I believe that knowing how many people in a population have antibodies, correlated with whether they have reported known symptoms, will help calculate how far the disease has spread and how bad it is for the population as a whole.  It will help plan our medical resources.

General_Grant

jackieblack said:

Dr_Crypto said:

She wasn’t immune as such. She was a (relatively) assymptomatic long term carrier of the Salmonella enterica bacterium which lived in her gall bladder for some reason. 

How is salmonella connected to typhoid?
Genuine question - I’ve never heard of any connection between the two before 🤷🏻‍♀️

The Salmonella typhi bacterium is the cause of typhoid.  It is not the same as those salmonella bacteria which cause what we know as Salmonella. 

onwards&upwards

An immune person can still be a vector for the virus by touching surfaces that have virus on them and then spreading that through touch.  That’s another good reason why you don’t start ignoring the rules (especially around hygiene) just because you’re immune) 

sharpe106

To be fair to the OP I don't think they were suggesting that they should now be allowed to ignore the rules, just wondering what it meant. 

nannyto2

@JamoLewdid you have any symptoms at all? or you had it without having any idea ??

nannyto2

How do you get the antibody test?

prowla

I think the logic is that:

a. having antibodies suggests that you've had the virus, and
b. if you've had the virus and got better then your body must've fought it off and therefore would do again before it could take hold.

However, we don't know:

c. how long they'll last, and

d. whether the virus can/will mutate.

General_Grant

nannyto2 said:

How do you get the antibody test?

You work in the health or social care sector.  At least that is the likely way in which the OP and their colleagues were tested.