Corona Virus

[janzman]

If the symptoms of 'CV' are the same as flu then what 'test' is performed to determine if someone is 'tested positive' for 'cv or just having the flu. I am confused........

[Tilly2]

Good question!

[Peter Pedant]

well the virus is not by itself but is related to other viruses (pathogen) so you get a splodge of a related virus inject that into a rat and raise an antibody (agent 1)

oh the clever modern bit will be to get a yeast to churn out the antibody in industrial amounts

and right antibody will glow with a corona virus
oh forgot you also add a glowy agent - antiglobulin

so get your spit - add agent (1) the antibody and then the glowy agent which will only bind if the antibody is present bound to the virus - antiglobulin agent (2)

and it will glow otherwise it gets washed away. That is kinda old way ( 1980-2000) [yeah when I was doing lab work]

otherwise it will be an ELISA
enzyme linked immunsorbent assay
which is slightly more complicated

well dont ask these questions if you doan wanna technical answer

now I will google it

[Peter Pedant]

oh it is here

https://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/faq.html#lab

the antibody test is as above

PCR -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction

get them to spit
the virus will be present and so its DNA will be as well

very small copies of DNA can be made very large in quantity by PCR ( cycles ) - read it and get 5 copies ( cycle one) read them and get 5 copies now 25, and another cycle ( 125) repeat up to 20 times - 5 to the power 20
and thenshoot it up a gel column with a control

if present it will level-peg the control bar
and if neg then it will not show anything next the control bar

[Peter Pedant]

one test costs around £ 100
actually the internet says $15 - $25
so testing all the 4000 people on the liner
is around $100 000
I would say more - but clearly not cheap
but a snip compared to fourteen days quarantine for 4000 people

one must always estimate the cost of acourse of action

[maggiebee]

Really don't understand anything about this virus. However, my friend's son is Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Clinical Lead for the Public Health Microbiology team in Scotland and they are working round the clock on this problem.

[douglas9401]

Sufferers of the actual Corona virus present carrying a bottle of Mexican beer with a wedge of lime in the neck (of the bottle).