CDC Seeks to Limit False Positives with COVID-19 Antibody Testing, as Immunity Question Lingers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published interim guidelines Tuesday on the use of COVID-19 antibody tests in clinical and public health laboratories.​

CDC is encouraging lab professionals to take steps to limit the risk of false positives, including by testing people twice to mitigate the imperfect specificity of the tests. The agency is ambivalent about which antibodies a certain test detects. “There is no identified advantage of assays whether they test for IgG, IgM and IgG, or total antibody,” the CDC document says.

While true positive results may show an individual has some degree of immunity to the coronavirus, CDC said serologic tests should not be used at this time to determine if an individual is immune​. Although the agency asserts that infectiousness is likely “greatly decreased” in the weeks after exposure to the virus, it wants to see more data before leaning on the results of antibody tests to inform public health advice.

 

Source: https://www.medtechdive.com/news/cdc-coronavirus-antibody-testing-guidelines/578650/