Corona test at the dm: the drugstore violates the protection against infections?

Cologne –

The pharmacy chain has jumped on the bandwagon: dm now offers tests for corona antibodies at home. The test kit of the “cerascreen” brand, which costs around 60 euros, is currently only available in the dm online shop.

According to dm managing director Sebastian Bayer, the huge pharmacy chain wants to live up to its “responsibility as a competent provider of health products”. But who really benefits from this test? The Association of German Laboratory Doctors is very critical of the tests.

With the help of the self-test, customers can find out if they have antibodies to the coronavirus in their blood, that is, if they may have already survived a coronavirus infection without knowing it. Important: This can also include people who only had mild or no symptoms during their possible corona infection, for example.

Corona antibody test by dm: this is how the test at home works

Antibody testing should not be confused with so-called PCR tests, which are performed using a throat swab and which can be used to determine if patients are going through an acute corona infection. A current coronavirus infection cannot be diagnosed on your own with this test.

Performing the antibody test on dm is quite simple. Here is an overview of the individual steps:

• After delivery of the test kit, customers are asked to fill a small container with their own blood.
• Then they send the blood sample to a special laboratory.
• There, the blood sample is mixed with the coronavirus – if antibodies can be detected, the affected person appears to have already been infected with the coronavirus.

According to the supplier, the antibody test result is available twelve to 48 hours after the blood sample is sent.

Corona antibody test to dm: what are they for?

But are these antibody tests really useful? Around 455,000 people have been shown to have been infected in Germany by the outbreak of the coronavirus. To date, around 325,000 people have officially recovered (as of October 27, 2020).

If the science isn’t deceptive, these 325,000 people who recovered from the corona have been shown to have formed antibodies to the coronavirus as part of the infection. They are immune shortly after surviving the infection and cannot be infected with the virus again.

However, how long coronavirus immunity lasts is unclear. Maybe a year, maybe just a few months or weeks. According to a report by the public scientific journal “Quarks”, studies indicate that antibodies to the coronavirus in the blood may have disappeared after just three to seven weeks.

One of these exceptions comes from North Rhine-Westphalia: professional musician Markus Wallrafen from Schwalmtal (Lower Rhine) was twice infected with the corona virus.

Are corona antibody tests even useful?

The biggest problem with corona antibody tests, also known as “antigen tests”: People who only discover in the course of an antibody test that they are presumably immune to the virus might take some rules of behavior lightly accordingly. Washing your hands, disinfecting, keeping your distance – all of this can be overlooked if you are immune. You should think so. Anyone who has been infected and does not yet have antibodies in their blood becomes a weak spot.

While it is true that coronavirus immunity only lasts a few weeks, these people may feel like they are in a false sense of security and potentially put other people and themselves at risk unknowingly.

BDL warns of corona antibody tests

The Association of German Laboratory Doctors (BDL) warns against corona antigen tests, which – not just at dm – are now available everywhere on the Internet. The discussion on corona antibody tests for lay people is observed “with the utmost concern”, reads a statement published in September. These tests are “not a useful addition to the national testing strategy,” he said.

Problem: Antigen determination is less accurate than much more accurate PCR tests. Instead, the BDL asked to continue to rely on PCR testing and massively increase advertising for the Corona alert app.

In an interview with EXPRESS, Dr. Matthias Orth, board member of BDL and head of laboratory medicine at the Marienhospital in Stuttgart: “Antibody tests are not suitable for acute diagnostics, as they detect the body’s immune response, which it occurs only days to weeks after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 -Virus emerges. “

BDL board member explains: antibody tests “for the worthless ordinary citizen”

He explains: “A special feature of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is the highly variable immune response: about one third of infected people do not form antibodies or the antibodies fall off very quickly. However, these people can be protected by their cellular immunity. “

Another problem, according to Dr. Matthias Orth: the so-called cross-reaction with other coronaviruses that cause common colds, for example. A higher concentration of antibodies in the blood could also result from these cold viruses. A certain immunity against the coronavirus cannot therefore be demonstrated with the help of the antibody test alone – for the normal citizen they are “worthless”.

There is also a problem with the accuracy of the dm antibody test: although the test can show with an almost 100% probability that antibodies are present, the probability that the test will correctly state whether a patient is immune or not is very lower . Why: Antibodies must not be equated with immunity.

Selling corona antibody tests in drugstores violates the law

According to Orth, the sensitivity of the dm antibody test is about 65% – about a third of people who are actually immune therefore mistakenly assume they are not. At the same time, it can be assumed that approximately every second antibody test is false positive, that is, there is no immunity, even if the antibody test was positive.

Orth also points out that offering self-tests to customers is much more expensive than family doctor tests. Also, according to Orth, the sale through the drugstore violates the Infection Protection Act, which only allows doctors to test for pathogens like the new coronavirus.