a Lot of people would like to anti-body test. Is that so easy? Under what conditions? When will ever been tested for the Virus? An Overview.

sore throat, cough, elevated temperature: I ? to me shortly before the beginning of summer is still a cold captured, or the Coronavirus What was with the serious infections that plagued me in February and to the bed tied up? It was suspected at the end of Covid-19 and not the flu , like the time?

There are questions that preoccupy in these weeks, many people feel sick, or it was last time. A Test could provide information. In principle, a distinction is made between Tests on an existing infection and antibody tests , which indicate a previous infection with the Coronavirus .

found A acute infection is mostly a swab from the mouth, nose, or throat . The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recommends, in the meantime, to test for sufficient capacity for all patients with respiratory diseases. Particularly urgent is a Test, if someone had in the past 14 days, contact to be Infected, a risk group or in the hospital or a nursing home works.

Covid-19 or the flu? First of all, with the house physician, or house doctor

anyone Who suffers from the typical flu - like complaints , such as sore throat, cough, runny nose, fever, or odor-and taste-loss, should first, best to call the family doctor or the family doctor and the symptoms of signs; but in no case it should appear unannounced in practice. Together is then discussed on the phone, whether a Test is useful and where it is best to make – this can be a special center, a clinic or the doctor's office.

Alternatively, you can contact us under the telephone number 116 117 the medical on-call service. There, you will be asked, among other things, to pre-existing conditions, age and complaints, and on this basis an assessment.

Test according to the PCR method, in the case of suspected Corona-infection, the medium of choice

suspected infection with Sars-CoV-2 is usually after the PCR tested. PCR is the abbreviation for the so-called polymerase chain reaction, demonstrating the genetic material of the Coronavirus. A swab is taken, wherein the RKI recommends two samples: one from the throat and the nose.

The samples are then examined in a laboratory. Usually it takes two days to get a result there. In the meantime, the persons Concerned should go to voluntary quarantine . There is also a rapid tests , which after about two and a half hours, a result. However, they are more expensive and are considered to be less reliable.

antigen test are a relatively new method to detect evidence of infection. Here, too, a swab from the mouth, nose, and revenge will be taken from the room. A test strip within 15 minutes a result. Is tested on the building blocks of protein of the pathogen (antigen) in the sample. So far, antigen tests, however, are considered as less reliable than testing with the PCR method.

With an anti-body test, back Corona infection evidence

A previous infection with a anti-body test evidence. This blood must be removed. Antibodies are proteins that the reaction forming the human immune system as a tailor-made defense when it has detected pathogens in the body.

antibody in classes, which have different tasks and different speeds produced will be divided. Particularly active about the more for the "Rough" competent IgM antibodies. In the further course of infection the IgG antibodies then go to the Start, the specific work and longer the blood will remain.

The detection of antibodies is a complex procedure that requires several steps. Part of the anti-body tests can reveal an existing Covid-19-disease. However, a few days to two weeks after infection, until the immune system produces different antibodies. Therefore, the Tests do not beat in an early stage of the disease and, as proof of a current infection not suitable.

A Corona antibody test will apply from the third week to be a meaningful

From the third week an anti-body test as a statement strongly applies. Between the first symptoms (only several days after infection usually occur) and blood sampling should therefore be at least two weeks. As particularly, precisely, is a procedure in the case of the twice at an interval of seven to 14 days, blood is taken from is also. Anti body tests are now offered by several manufacturers around the world, their quality is different.

However, uncertainties remain: it can not completely exclude the possibility that an earlier infection with one of the more harmless Corona the common cold virus can lead to false-positive result . In addition, antibodies disappear at longer previous infections from the blood. This need not mean a loss of immunity: memory cells of the immune system may be able to make a renewed contact with a pathogen, the appropriate antibodies quickly. How long the immunity in the case of Sars-CoV-2 stops, you do not know yet but.

Positive antibody-detection could lead to false complacency

The Use of antibody tests for a single person is limited for all of these reasons: You know with some of – if not absolute security, if you've been infected with the Coronavirus, and at least temporarily immune.

What the means, but specifically how long it is then immune and can be infected, cleared . Therefore, a positive anti-body could be trick-evidence to a false sense of carelessness.

science antibody tests with a variety of people, nonetheless, very revealing. Because they give an indication of how large the proportion of the population is already with Sars-CoV-2 in touch.

experts do not recommend Corona self tests

The health insurance companies pay for the Tests if you have been prescribed by a doctor. This applies both to Tests, on acute infection as well as for Corona-antibody tests . The Internet will increasingly be offered Tests for self-payer, in which you have to make a throat swab or blood from the Finger removed and the samples must then send it in.

experts advise, however, of such a self-tests , since a poor quality of self-taken sample or improper Transport could distort the result.