Arapahoe County Partners With CU For Coronavirus Antibodies Study

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, CO — Arapahoe County has partnered with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for an antibodies study that tracks the spread of the coronavirus. The research aims to better understand the immune response to the virus.

The study is being conducted in two phases: the first analyzes antibodies in first responders, and the second phase will gather data from a randomly-selected sample of the county's population.

So far, the COVID-19 Arapahoe SEroveillance Study, or 'CASES,' has found that around 4 percent of first responders have had a previous COVID-19 infection. Phase 2 will test around 1,200 households for antibodies, officials said.

The project’s managers are working with the Sun Bus, a mobile classroom and clinic that normally educates communities about melanoma, to visit neighborhoods and inform families about COVID-19. The randomly selected households, which are being notified of their selection via mail, can participate in a brief survey about prior exposures to COVID-19, any prior testing and history of COVID-19 symptoms. Participants will also provide a quick finger stick blood sample to measure antibodies. After testing, results will be sent confidentially to participants, officials said.

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Arapahoe County Board Chair Nancy Sharpe said the study is one of many that have already begun.

“By looking more closely at first responders and now at the broader community, we can begin to determine how the virus behaves and spreads, and we can create protocols that will help protect our communities from further infections,” Sharpe said in a statement.

The study is being led by Rosemary Rochford, a professor of Immunology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Rochford and her team have been studying how the immune system reacts to the virus and have designed a new antibody test that can give accurate results quickly and affordably, officials said.

The study will continue so that scientists can find out more about how antibodies change over time and how the immune system reacts to the virus, officials said.

>> Read more about the study here.