Burden of RSV disease

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) study: Defining the burden of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) disease.

  • IRAS ID

    223673

  • Contact name

    Andrew Pollard

  • Contact email

    andrew.pollard@paediatrics.ox.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Oxford

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    3 years, 5 months, 29 days

  • Research summary

    Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes severe respiratory disease in babies, the elderly and high-risk groups. In 2005 it’s estimated that RSV was associated with 3.4 million acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) hospitalisations and between 55,000 - 199,000 deaths in children under 5 years worldwide, most in developing countries. In the UK up to 1 in 25 of all children born each year are hospitalised due to RSV infection. Knowing the healthcare and societal costs associated with RSV infection are essential to decide which future treatments and preventatives to use.
    This study will determine the burden of RSV disease in at least 2000 healthy infants, to be recruited into one of two cohorts:
    1. Passive (at least 1800): Demographic data will be collected at inclusion and a parental questionnaire at one year of age. Babies admitted to a hospital for an ARTI will be followed up to the age of 3 years.
    2. Active (at least 200): At inclusion demographic data and the following samples will be taken; blood, a swab from the back of the nose, stool and urine samples from the nappy. During the RSV season (Oct to March) in first year of life, parents will be contacted weekly to monitor respiratory symptoms. If the infant has an ARTI they will be visited to test (by a nose swab) if the illness is due to RSV. If positive, samples as above will be taken and repeated 7 weeks later. There will be ongoing weekly contact enquiring of further ARTIs. Visits to determine if any respiratory illness is due to RSV continue throughout infants’ first RSV season. Participants are followed annually by questionnaire.
    Data collected in this study and similar studies in sites across Europe will be combined to provide data on 10,000 healthy infants.

  • REC name

    South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    17/SC/0335

  • Date of REC Opinion

    2 Aug 2017

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion