Assessing burden of respiratory pathogens in medical admissions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the potential burden of undiagnosed respiratory tract infections in medical patients admitted to general medical wards during Winter influenza season
IRAS ID
273959
Contact name
Blair Merrick
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 19 days
Research summary
This is a pilot study at a single centre (St. Thomas' Hospital) to assess if there is a burden of undiagnosed respiratory infections in patients admitted to medical wards during the Winter influenza season. All medical admissions who have not had a respiratory panel screen sent (performed by nose and throat swab), by the time of their first review by a consultant (consultant post take ward round), will be consented to have a nose and throat swab sent to investigate for respiratory pathogens. The study aims to recruit approximately 300 patients, and will likely last 3-4 weeks to accrue this number of patients. The nasopharyngeal swab will be tested for respiratory infections at a time remote from the patient's admission (approximately 2-3 months later), therefore the result will not be available to the clinical team, and will not effect the patient's management. By the time that the result is available it will have no clinical consequence to the patient. The purpose of the study is to assess if clinicians are failing to clinically suspect and diagnose a significant burden of respiratory infections. This may have implications in the future for both the patient, in terms of missed opportunities to treat them with antiviral or antibacterials, and for the wider hospital population in terms of the transmission of infectious pathogens to other patients. If a significant burden of infections are identified through this study, it may strengthen the case for universal screening of certain patient groups if it is felt this could impact on future clinical care and patient outcomes.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0029
Date of REC Opinion
20 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion