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The question of whether to become immune to covid-19 has been debated. However, several studies have now pointed out that people who have suffered an infection are protected against infection by so-called IgG antibodies, a protein that forms as an immune response to the virus.
To detect antibodies, the test must be safe. However, the Swedish authorities do not currently approve rapid tests offered commercially, outside of medical care.
DN has previously stated that the private healthcare company Hedda Care offers private individuals to be tested for covid-19. DN can now reveal that both Hedda Care and other private health care companies offer companies and organizations to screen their staff for covid-19 antibodies on a larger scale.
In your information to your Client company, OneLab company states that tests are CE marked and validated, and describes possibilities to test personnel:
“The people in whom we can detect IgG antibodies are very likely to have an immune system that allows the person to return to work with a reduced risk of becoming infected or spreading the infection.” The company also gets aggregated statistics on the proportion of immune protection. “
DN has received information about several employers who have examined their staff. Among OneLab’s reference customers, many do not want to respond. The cooperative housing organization HSB claims that a local department, Södertörn, has ordered 40 tests for its employees.
Anna Söderlind, Marketing Manager at HSB Södertörn, replies DN in an email:
“We follow the social development and the recommendations of the Public Health Authority. In a time of great uncertainty, we are trying to contribute to the spread of the infection while trying to create the safest possible working environment. We see opportunities, for example, to use test results as a tool in possibly longer-term planning of how we will deliver on our contract deliveries. ”
Regarding the quality of The tests refer Söderlind to OneLab.
Employees of the IT company Addnode have been offered to test for antibodies at Hedda Care. A source of transparency questions the procedure in an email to DN:
“They announced that the test is reliable. Why Addnode tests these employees is difficult to understand because the tests are not recommended by the Public Health Authority.”
Johan Andersson, president and CEO, says the test was for a small group only and had no practical consequences.
– We had a small test group to see if it was something. Since then, we have decided not to go through with this. If you listen to the authorities, they tell you that more validation is needed in the area and then everything falls apart.
Today, both the Public Health Agency and the Swedish Medicines Agency recommend that individuals be tested outside of medical care.
“The safety tests are performed by laboratories connected to the hospital,” says Ewa-Lena Hartman, director of medical technology for the Swedish Medicines Agency.
According to Hartman it is Uncertainty factors are so numerous that there is currently nothing an employer who has evaluated their staff can do with the information from the test responses.
– No, not really. Any response you obtain should be verified against established testing methods available in established hospital laboratories to ensure that it is correct. And there are still many questions about immunity.
Karin Tegmark Wisell, Head of the Public Health Authority unit for diagnosis of infection prevention and emergency preparedness:
– The state of knowledge regarding the conclusions that can be drawn from these antibody tests is not yet complete.
A group of researchers has commissioned by the Public Health Authority to produce a knowledge base that will form the basis of national guidelines for antibody testing. One of them is Jan Albert, professor of infectious diseases who heads the special group covid-19 of the Karolinska Institute. Nor would I recommend rapid employee testing.
– The point is that there are no good validated tests. Although it’s happening, it happens a lot every day, if I were a medical consultant for a private company, I’d recommend waiting, he says.
Colleague Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, professor of immunology at the Karolinska Institute, agrees:
– The important thing is that you do not blindly believe in all the commercial variants, some are simply not good enough. It becomes a problem when there are many manufacturers and resellers of the tests; When there is a lot of money to win, it can go too fast. In the worst case, it can be made worse by drawing too large conclusions from an unvalidated test.
The researchers agree. that if you have been healthy for a while and have IgG antibodies, you are more likely to have some protection against reinfection.
– It may not be one hundred percent, but you probably have a milder infection. This is how we know it works with most other viruses, but it has only been a few months since this virus appeared. Now we have to wait and see if people who have shown antibodies can be exposed without becoming infected, says Karlsson Hedestam and continues:
– Therefore, you should not be feeling invulnerable and expose yourself to infection, even knowing that you have IgG against the virus. It is too early to say anything definitive about protection.
Korea’s first reports showed that people in the first stage showed viruses, then they were tested and virus-free, and then a third test to detect viruses. These people were interpreted to have been reinfected, but most likely it was a false-negative virus test result, according to Jan Albert and Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam.
KI researchers see the need for more comparative studies of laboratory and commercial rapid tests.
– I hope some independent body will do an official evaluation of the evidence soon, says Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam.
DN is seeking representatives from Hedda Care and OneLab.
