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Got Titers? New Test Makes It Easy, Inexpensive to Find Out if You’re Immune to 11 Infectious Diseases

By Brian Hooker, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 30, 2024

There are many situations for which it’s necessary to know your immune status against an infectious agent.

In May 2023, I reported on the ImmunoProfile® technology as a relatively inexpensive, in-home method of determining antibody “titers” for adults.

Now, this test is available for children as young as age 4. This allows ImmunoProfile titer testing to be used for proof of immunity for children for school attendance — especially for states like California, where exemptions are rarely granted.

ImmunoProfile testing for children can now also be used for daycare, summer camps and sports teams that may require vaccines for participation, but may allow the substitution of titers testing in some cases.

An antibody titer is a medical laboratory test that determines the amount of antibodies specific to an infectious agent in the bloodstream. The antibody level in the blood reflects the body’s past experience or exposure to an antigen or something the body doesn’t recognize as “self.”

In the past, an antibody titer required a physician-written laboratory order, a blood draw from a registered phlebotomist and multiple laboratory tests for each disease where vaccination is required — all of which may not be covered by insurance.

Each test may cost as much as $400, and multiple tests may be required to determine the full range of vaccines required.

In contrast, the ImmunoProfile test panel simultaneously measures antibody titers for 11 infectious diseases, requires no lab order or blood draw and costs $229 plus tax. This cost includes the physician’s prescription, 11 antibody titer tests, shipping and the confidential test report result. The result report has been updated to include date of birth, age and sex assigned at birth.

The 11 antibody titer tests include: diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae B, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus and varicella zoster (chicken pox).

I and my family have previously used the ImmunoProfile test with great success. We found the entire process to be easy and straightforward. All the steps for collecting the blood were clearly and graphically laid out in the instructions insert that came in the kit and in the instruction video.

Within two weeks, we had our results. Read here for more details about our experience including my test results.

The test is completed by a CLIA/CAP-approved (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments/College of American Pathologists) laboratory. Antibody levels are measured using proprietary equipment, cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and used globally for more than 20 years by multiple medical diagnostics companies, research facilities and academic institutions.

Measured titers are compared to standards for immunity as set by the World Health Organization.

All information is kept private. ImmunoProfile doesn’t sell your information or test results and all blood samples are destroyed 30 days after testing. ImmunoProfile performs no other tests, genetic or otherwise, on your blood spot samples.

ImmunoProfile provides a secure web portal for obtaining results after testing is complete. Test results are completely private and require two-factor authentication to access. Login requires a username and password, plus a passcode sent to your email address.

Each child must have their own email account for privacy reasons and to comply with parental consent on the website.

Only authorized laboratory personnel have access to patient information, which consists only of antibody test results.

Brian S. Hooker, Ph.D., is chief scientific officer at Children’s Health Defense and professor emeritus of biology at Simpson University in Redding, California.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

June 3, 2024 - Posted by aletho | Aletho News | United States