Antibody test missed Covid-19 infection, contributed to spread in S'wak

(Editor's note: An earlier version which stated "Case 1580" as "Case 1530" has been corrected. The error is regretted.) 

CORONAVIRUS | Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today explained why the ministry discourages using antibody tests to detect Covid-19 infection.

Using Case 1,031 as an example, he shared how the patient was discharged after testing negative for an antibody test.

One day after she was discharged, the patient died from the virus and subsequently infected her family members. Four of them have since passed away due to Covid-19 infection.

“At the time, she was warded in a private healthcare facility and they used an antibody test on her. They also did a RT-PCR test.

“But when the antibody test came out negative, they discharged the patient. This is even though they didn’t have results for the RT-PCR test yet [...]

“It (the antibody) didn’t manage to detect the virus [...] and when she went home she infected her family members,” Noor Hisham said.

Thus, the inability of an antibody test to detect infections at an early stage was the reason RT-PCR and antigen tests were preferred.

“This is one factor why we don’t encourage using rapid test kits that use antibodies, or what is called a serology test,” he said.

An elderly woman, Case 1031 was only confirmed positive for Covid-19 three days after her death.

Health authorities have since learned that she contracted the virus from her daughter. Her daughter had been infected by Case 1580 - a colleague who had a recent travel history to Italy.

Cutting turnaround time

Noor Hisham also shared that the ministry has been evaluating antigen rapid test kits that can produce results in under two hours.

A rapid test can be performed at healthcare facilities without the need of a laboratory.

“If the antigen rapid test kit that we are testing now has high accuracy and reliability, perhaps we can use it at point of care,” he said.

A RT-PCR test usually takes more than a day as samples need to be transported to a laboratory.

The long turnaround time has caused a backlog in both samples that need to be tested, and in reporting the results. 

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