On Friday, April 24, I got a prick in my finger while I sat in my car outside Sedona Regenerative Medicine in Cottonwood, and had a drop of blood collected for testing.
Fifteen minutes later I was informed that I tested negative for coronavirus IgM antibodies — the temporary antibodies that my body would have produced shortly after detecting a foreign invader into my body — and I tested negative for coronavirus IgG antibodies — the long-term antibodies that my body would develop several weeks after detecting the virus.
My body is not showing the signs of either having the virus now or having had it in the past.
I received my test from the offices of Dr. Forrest Lanchbury at SRM. Though testing using nasal swabs was implemented weeks ago through Yavapai County, Verde Valley Medical Center and Spectrum Healthcare, those tests are mostly reserved for those who have been potentially exposed to individuals known to have the virus.
Lanchbury purchases his tests through a connection he has with Pellecome, a medical supply company, and administers them directly to requesting patients who pay for them.
“The tests aren’t easy to get right now,” Lanchbury said. “I had like 600 tests and sold them to other doctors.”
The tests purchased by Lanchbury are the Lungene COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Tests Cassette. It has been approved for use by the European Union for safe use, which allows them to be administered in the United States without full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
So far, Lanchbury said that he has administered 12 tests, and not yet encountered a single positive result, though he said that another doctor he sold tests to received a positive result.
The use of antibody tests like the ones administered by Lanchbury is still in its early stages, with ongoing controversy about their effectiveness and implementation. On April 24, the same day I received my test, the COVID-19 Testing Project, a team of researchers at UCSF, UC Berkeley, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and Innovative Genomics Institute, released their preliminary results from studying 14 different antibody tests, estimated a roughly 80% success rate, suggesting accuracy problems. The Lungene test was not one of those included in the study.
“The COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette is limited to provide a qualitative test,” the consent form I received before the test read. “The results obtained from this test are intended to be an aid in diagnosis only. Each physician must interpret the results in conjunction with the patient’s history, physical findings and other diagnostic procedures. A negative test result indicates that antibodies to the Novel coronavirus are either not present or at levels undetectable by the test.”
Lanchbury said that he still feels that this test is worthwhile even if it is not perfectly accurate, comparing it to standard accepted tests for strep, which only have an accuracy of 95%. He views it not as much as a means of trying to detect the virus in the community as a means of trying to find who has already had it and therefore should likely be immune to getting it in the future.
“The test they’re doing — PCR [polymerise chain reaction] — you have to have the actual virus for it to find it, “ Lanchbury said. “For this test, it’s the immune system.”
“I think the biggest use is going to be down the road to see who has the IgG antibodies,” Lanchbury said. “They should be prevented from getting it.”
