Ought to I Get a PCR Take a look at If I Have COVID-19?

For Rachel Robles, getting identified with Lengthy COVID was an uphill battle. She caught the virus in March 2020, when almost nothing was identified about its long-term results and testing was inaccessible for most individuals.

To this present day, she is delicate to screens—doing so can immediate strain in her head and ringing in her ears—and has to handle COVID-19-related accidents to her liver and mind. However since she by no means received examined for COVID-19 when she first received sick, Robles needed to “combat tooth and nail for each analysis I’ve acquired,” convincing uncertain medical doctors that she’d caught the virus and developed Lengthy COVID.

She was finally identified with Lengthy COVID, but it surely doubtless would have been simpler if she had had the proof of an infection {that a} check outcome offers, she says. Robles now recommends that anybody who suspects they’ve COVID-19 get a laboratory check, simply in case they go on to develop Lengthy COVID and want documentation of a earlier an infection for analysis or care.

“I by no means received proof of my preliminary COVID an infection, and I used to be gaslit a lot,” says Robles, who’s an administrator on the Lengthy COVID assist group Physique Politic and a contributor to the Affected person-Led Analysis Collaborative for Lengthy COVID. “So I all the time inform folks, ‘That is one thing you could do when you’ve got a COVID an infection, simply in case.’”

David Putrino, a Lengthy COVID researcher at New York’s Mount Sinai well being system who co-authored a chapter of the forthcoming Lengthy COVID Survival Information with Robles and neurologist Dr. Dona Kim Murphey, says he “wholeheartedly” agrees that folks ought to get as a lot documentation of an an infection as potential. Getting a PCR check is “100% the advice”—but when all you are able to do is take an at-home check, no less than maintain photographs of the outcomes, Putrino says.

“Overlaying your bases as quickly as you begin to really feel unwell and conserving good data is tremendous necessary,” he says. (Within the e book chapter, Putrino, Murphey, and Robles even suggest that folks take into account getting blood assessments and chest X-rays performed quickly after they get identified with COVID-19, in order that they have a baseline file in case they later expertise problems.)

PCR assessments are nonetheless thought-about the gold normal for accuracy, so some medical doctors suggest getting one to substantiate the outcomes of an at-home swab. However individuals are more and more forgoing that step now that speedy assessments are widespread and more and more accepted. A PCR check isn’t even required to get a prescription for the antiviral Paxlovid.

It might appear paranoid to plan forward for a potential case of Lengthy COVID—however the odds of getting it aren’t so lengthy. Current federal knowledge recommend that one in 5 individuals who catches COVID-19 will develop signs of Lengthy COVID, which may embrace fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and power ache, amongst many others.

If somebody does develop Lengthy COVID, having documentation of a earlier COVID-19 case may make it simpler to get correctly identified or handled in a Lengthy COVID clinic, a few of which require both proof of earlier an infection or a optimistic antibody check. However not all sufferers have such proof.

In July, Hannah Davis—who can also be a part of Physique Politic and the Affected person-Led Analysis Collaborative for Lengthy COVID—mentioned in Congressional testimony that PCR and antibody assessments “are sometimes required for sick depart, entry into Lengthy COVID clinics, well being care, and participation in analysis,” though some folks get false unfavorable outcomes and others can’t get examined in any respect. Davis added that some individuals who catch COVID-19 don’t produce antibodies, or see their antibody ranges drop to undetectable ranges over time.

Dr. Hector Bonilla, who co-directs Stanford’s Submit COVID-19 Syndrome Clinic, says his facility accepts a affected person so long as they’ve a optimistic check outcome linked to their identify—that’s, one performed by a clinician or testing service, versus a do-it-yourself residence check—or proof of infection-related antibodies. Having a COVID-19 check outcome will help decide whether or not somebody has Lengthy COVID or different, comparable sicknesses, comparable to myalgic encephalomyelitis/power fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Bonilla says. (Some Lengthy COVID sufferers additionally meet diagnostic standards for ME/CFS.)

However Dr. Benjamin Abramoff, who directs Penn Medication’s Submit-COVID Evaluation and Restoration Clinic, says he thinks fewer clinics would require official check outcomes now that at-home assessments are the norm. “Realistically, all people’s going to be getting residence assessments,” he says. “I can’t think about anybody requiring [formal testing] transferring ahead.”

And whereas many Lengthy COVID sufferers with out PCR check outcomes have been outright dismissed by medical doctors early within the pandemic, Abramoff thinks that’s occurring much less now that Lengthy COVID is extra broadly identified. “It nonetheless occurs, however a lot lower than it did,” he says. Even and not using a PCR check outcome, documentation from a health care provider will be sufficient to get incapacity advantages, insurance coverage protection, and work lodging, he says. Many long-haulers wrestle to get incapacity advantages even with correct documentation, nonetheless.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Well being Group’s (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, mentioned in a press release to TIME that “the dearth of proof of prior an infection shouldn’t be an obstacle for folks to get entry to analysis and care” for Lengthy COVID. The WHO’s definition of Lengthy COVID specifies that it may possibly happen amongst individuals who have both a “possible or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 an infection,” she famous.

Nonetheless, Putrino says it’s higher to be protected than sorry, as the standards for getting a Lengthy COVID analysis or being admitted to a therapy middle fluctuate by establishment and will change sooner or later. “These diagnostic standards can change based mostly on who’s in energy,” he says. “Ensuring that you’ve very clear documentation of a optimistic check is necessary, as a result of it offers you your greatest likelihood of with the ability to obtain companies so long as you want them.”

Write to Jamie Ducharme at jamie.ducharme@time.com.