At-Home Test Leading The Way In Helping Researchers Tackle Unanswered Questions About Coronavirus
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Ann Howley suddenly had a fever, then fatigue.
"I could barely get out of bed for a couple days. It was just bone-crushing exhaustion, which was highly unusual for me," Howley said.
Then came a cough.
"The cough was different from any cough I've ever had. When they say it's a dry cough, that's a good way to describe it," Howley said.
A week and a half into her illness, she eventually developed chest pain.
"I felt like I was taking in breaths of air, but it wasn't going anywhere. That was the only five minutes of fear I had, where I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I can't breathe,'" Howley said.
Then, a horrible rash.
"I just had to lay in bed with an ice pack on my face all night because it was so uncomfortable," Howley said.
Her symptoms were spot on, and she decided to call her doctor.
"He said it could be COVID, or it could be the flu, 'But I can't test you. There aren't enough tests,'" Howley said. "And I certainly didn't have symptoms that were serious enough that I needed to go to the hospital."
People like Howley want to know if they actually have coronavirus. The National Institutes of Health wants to know, too.
"So we can understand exactly the extent of the spread of the infection, and understand how many people are what we call seropositive, which means they have antibodies against the virus in their blood," explains Kaitlyn Sadtler, Ph.D., chief of immuno-engineering at the National Institutes of Health.
Enrollment and consent are done by phone. Participants will have a telemedicine visit and fill out questionnaires and demographic information.
They also get a home test kit.
"There is a lancet, which you prick your finger to get a blood drop," Dr. Sadtler said. "And then it'll absorb a specific amount of blood. And you have four of those inside each kit. Those get sent back to our lab, dried blood, and so we store those, and then we can go ahead and get the antibodies off of those."
The NIH hoped for 10,000 volunteers to take part. Already, the response is overwhelming.
"Last count, I heard from our clinical collaborators is over 250,000 emails," Dr. Sadtler says.
An early batch of results is expected in mid-May, and Dr. Sadtler says the information should not be used to make individual clinical decisions.
"I don't know if it was the coronavirus or not, but it certainly felt different than anything I had had before," said Howley, who signed up for the study. "I did send an email to them. I haven't heard anything back. But yes, I would definitely like to participate in that if I can. It would be extremely useful information, not just for me, but for my neighbors, my friends, for society. I think it's important we do that."
The results will help to show how much the virus has spread in the U.S. and which communities are most affected.
The study might even give some insight into why some cases are milder and don't require hospitalization.
If you're interested in participating, contact clinicalstudiesunit@nih.gov. More info at ClinicalTrials.gov, search with identifier NCT04334954.