Antibodies produced by the immune system in response to infection will be present in the blood for a long time Using an antibody test developed by the Duke-NUS Medical School that relies on blood samples, the Singapore Ministry of Health has been successful in identifying two people who were infected with the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and have since recovered. The antibody test can be used for detecting people infected with novel coronavirus but are asymptomatic or exhibit only mild symptoms.

              The Singapore Ministry of Health announced this during a press conference on Tuesday.The sensitivity and specificity of the antibody test is currently not known. The Hindu has so far not received any response from Duke-NUS Medical School. Unlike the currently used molecular test that detects the presence of viral genetic material in oral swab samples, the diagnostic test developed by Duke-NUS Medical School detects antibodies developed by the immune system when infected with the novel coronavirus. While the currently used molecular test has low sensitivity and cannot identify people who have recovered from COVID-19 illness as they will no longer harbour the virus, antibodies produced by the immune system in response to infection will be present in the blood for a long time.

               This makes the antibody test particularly important to trace even people who have recovered from illness. “We developed assays which are not new assays but using them in this context we could look for antibodies in patients. We could trace back patients who have been infected previously,” Dr. Danielle Anderson, Scientific Director of the Duke-NUS ABSL3 facility, said during the press conference. On January 30, the Duke-NUS Medical School announced that in collaboration with other institutions/hospital it had successfully cultured the novel coronavirus from an infected person, thus becoming the third country outside China to do so. According to the Ministry of Health release, the researchers had used the virus and genetic material derived from the virus to “develop several specific laboratory tests to detect the virus-specific antibodies for contact tracing and other applications”.

            The antibody test was put to use to confirm past infection (late January) with novel coronavirus in two people who have since recovered. Two different antibody testing platforms (virus neutralisation assay and ELISA assay) were used to confirm past infection. This became possible as these people, despite having recovered from COVID-19 illness, still had “very high levels of the virus-specific antibodies in their blood”. The positive test result in the two people helped the Health Ministry to establish the links between two church clusters and the source of infection.