PANTHER Cohort
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PANdemic Tracking of HEalthcare woRkers Cohort and Questionnaire study
IRAS ID
285436
Contact name
Ben Ollivere
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN15677965
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The WHO characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic after 118,000 cases and 4,291 death. Cases have continued to rise and now 400,000 deaths have been reported. National guidance has recommended physical distancing to reduce transmission of the virus, although healthcare workers are expected to continue with normal patterns of working in order to care for those with the virus. There is early evidence that there is up to a 12-fold increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers, and there have been 245 reported fatalities in UK healthcare workers.
In an environment where there is increased exposure, it is important to understand the occupational, personal, medical and genetics factors which predispose healthcare workers to contracting the virus and make individuals at risk of poor outcomes. There have been a number of epidemiological and serological studies which have identified risk factors such as age, gender and certain pre-existing conditions, but there is less evidence looking evidence in the healthcare worker population.
We set up a study under the Human Tissue Authority licence at the Nottingham Tissue Bank (PANTHER Tissue study) to allow healthcare workers (and their household contacts) to donate samples for testing for research purposes. As of June 2020, 640 participants have consented to donate tissue and over 3000 samples have been collected. This tissue will be subjected to antibody testing, and genetic sequencing to help understand the prevalence of COVID-19 in the healthcare worker population and genetic factors which influence COVID-19.
We would now like to contact participants to invite them to take part in a linked questionnaire study to enrich the human tissue authority study date by providing details about whether they experienced COVID-19 symptoms, their general health and wellbeing (including comorbidities), health related quality of life, and personal and occupational exposure along with questions related to their home circumstances.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0395
Date of REC Opinion
28 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion