Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
From there, you should know what your results actually mean, including a faint positive line, and when to take another test or get a more sensitive COVID-19 test from your doctor to clear things up.
It will generally not be positive during the 4–6 week incubation period before the onset of symptoms. The highest amount of heterophile antibodies occurs 2 to 5 weeks after the onset of symptoms. [9] If positive, it will remain so for at least six weeks. [10] An elevated heterophile antibody level may persist up to 1 year. [9]
“A faint line on a COVID test means the test is positive,” says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
Heterophile antibodies are IgM antibodies with affinity for sheep and horse red blood cells. They appear during the first week of infectious mononucleosis symptoms, 3–4 weeks after infection and return to undetectable levels 3 to 6 months after infection. Heterophile antibody is a fairly specific but insensitive test for EBV.
For the figure that shows high sensitivity and low specificity, there are 3 FN and 8 FP. Using the fact that positive results = true positives (TP) + FP, we get TP = positive results - FP, or TP = 40 - 8 = 32. The number of sick people in the data set is equal to TP + FN, or 32 + 3 = 35. The sensitivity is therefore 32 / 35 = 91.4%.
If your COVID-19 rapid test turns positive, but the line is faint, unfortunately it still means you have COVID. However, a re-test might be in your future.
Here "T+" or "T−" denote that the result of the test is positive or negative, respectively. Likewise, "D+" or "D−" denote that the disease is present or absent, respectively. So "true positives" are those that test positive (T+) and have the disease (D+), and "false positives" are those that test positive (T+) but do not have the disease (D ...