SEROLOGICAL SURVEY

SEROLOGICAL SURVEY

Subject: Science & tech

Context: Nearly one in five Indians had been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus until December 2020, the third round of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Serological Survey found.

Concept:

Serological survey

• The serological survey was meant to detect whether the person being tested had developed antibodies against the coronavirus.
• Since it is not possible to test everyone, detecting antibodies in random sets of people is an indirect way of estimating the extent of disease spread in a community.
• The antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system to fight external organisms like viruses that try to enter the body.
• These are produced only after the infection has happened, and are specific to the attacking virus or bacterium.
• The presence of antibodies, therefore, is an indication that an infection by that particular virus or bacterium has already occurred.
• Subsequent attempts to infect the body can be thwarted by these antibodies.