Michigan Urgent Care and Occupational Health started offering antibody blood serum testing for COVID-19 about two weeks ago.
Since then more than 2,000 people have been tested at nine southeast Michigan locations, including at 2300 Genoa Business Park Drive, Suite 120, in Genoa Township.
People who want to know if they have an immunity to the virus can receive testing for $35, said Dr. Mohammed Ariswala, owner of the urgent cares.
"The story that we get is that in January, February they were very sick...They want to know if they are immune to this," he said.
The Livingston County Health Department does not want people to assume they are eternally immune to the virus and disregard recommended health measures such as social distancing and wearing face coverings if a test indicates the presence of antibodies, said Natasha Radke, health promotion coordinator and public information officer for the department.
"Even if we find that there is protective immunity by the infection, if you had the infection already and recovered, it's not clear how long that immunity will last," Radke said.
The urgent care is offering three kinds of tests related to COVID-19, a nasal swab, blood tests and the instant finger prick antibody test.
The tests give different data and can be used together to get a more complete picture, Ariswala said.
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The nasal swab tests for the presence of the virus looking for SARS-CoV-2 IgM which indicates a current infection. The two blood tests look for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and SARS-CoV-2 IgG, an antibody.
While there is a chance of false positives when testing for COVID-19, the chance of a false IgG positive is rare, Ariswala said.
"This is all very new," he said. "The IgM has low specificity.
Ariswala said the blood tests are 95% accurate testing for coronavirus antibodies as IgG is a very specific molecule.
False sense of security
Nikole Carlson Hartzell was one of the 2,000 Michigan residents who took the antibody test at the urgent care center in Genoa Township.
She said she felt invincible after testing negative for an active infection and prior infection with no evidence of immunity.
"Knowing I wasn't infected, I immediately visited my niece and hugged my sister," said Hartzell, who reasoned she could not transmit the coronavirus at that moment. "The novelty of it quickly wore off, as once I was home and saw my husband, I was no longer superhuman and could not guarantee anything anymore."
Uncertainty around the test results prompted the Livingston County Health Department to put out a warning on social media on Friday urging residents to "be wary" of antibody tests.
"At this point and time there is still a lot of uncertainty that needs to be addressed. There is particularly an issue with test validation," said Radke.
More: Coronavirus antibody tests are available around the country. Here's why they may provide a false sense of security.
The department worries positive antibody tests will give residents a false sense of security, something Ariswala refutes.
"It is not at all a false sense of security," said Ariswala. "Every time a patient comes in for the instant test we ask screening questions. It is not a chop shop operation that we do."
If a person tests positive for IgG on the instant test, Ariswala recommends they get the COVID nasal swab as well.
He said he does not tell his patients who show antibodies they are safe for life from the virus but that they will have a better chance at fighting the virus in the future.
The tests are qualitative not quantitative, he said, meaning they only indicate antibodies are present, not how many a person has.
Statewide testing and governmental approval
The state health department is currently not providing nor encouraging antibody testing, and is waiting on the tests to be approved by the federal government.
"We are encouraging people to do a little bit of research before they get these tests because not all of them have been validated," said Lynn Sutfin, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The blood antibody tests Ariswala is offering have has not been approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, however they are in the approval process, he said.
When told by a reporter that her test had not yet received FDA emergency use authorization, Hartzell said she was “bummed" and is back to self-quarantining for two weeks before visiting her sister and niece again.
In mid-March the FDA "provided regulatory flexibility for developers offering such tests without FDA review."
These tests were made available under an emergency access mechanism called an Emergency Use Authorization and results from antibody testing should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose or exclude SARS-CoV-2 infection or to inform infection status, according to the agency.
A spokeswoman for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital said the hospital is not doing antibody testing at this time.
Michigan Medicine and Ascension Medical Center are also not offering the tests in Livingston County, according to their websites.
USA Today reporters Kevin McCoy and David Heath contributed to this story. Contact Kayla Daugherty at 517-552-2848 or kdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KayDaugherty92.
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