STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Blaine County’s Coronavirus Antibody Research Study is conducting a follow-up study this week with those who tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in May 2020.

The blood drawing will help determine whether subjects still have coronavirus antibodies in their blood. Subjects have also been asked whether they have suffered new health problems, such as aching joints, loss of taste and smell, heart and breathing irregularities and stroke that might be a result of having had COVID-19.

And it’s looking at genetic makeup to see whether people with certain genetic makeups might do better than others.

The antibody research study tested 917 volunteers selected randomly out of about 2,500 applicants. It determined that 23 percent of those tested had COVID-19 antibodies. In Ketchum it was 35 percent which, at that time, was considered one of the highest prevalence rates of which researchers were aware.

Blaine County had one of the highest per-capita rates of COVID-19 in the nation and even the world in mid-March as the virus began making its presence known in the United States.

The research study is a collaboration between Blaine County, the Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.