Serology testing in Whittington Health Inpatients and staff with COVID [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Validation of a lateral flow and ELISA serology test in patients and healthcare workers who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by nose and throat swab at the Whittington Health NHS Trust, London between March and September 2020\n
IRAS ID
283380
Contact name
Michael Kelsey
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Noclor, Whittington Health NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
COVID-19 has been circulating in London since March 2020 following an outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Testing for current COVID-19 infection is done via a combined nose and throat swab. However, we know that this test may be falsely negative in some patients, and furthermore it only picks up current infection, not past infection.\n\nAn antibody is a protein developed by the body to protect the body from infections, including viruses such as COVID-19. Blood tests to detect COVID-19 antibodies are available and could help in the diagnosis of COVID-19, especially in cases where the COVID-19 swab result is negative but doctors still suspect a patient has COVID-19 or where a patient has had infection in the past.\n\nIn this study we aim to look at whether groups of inpatients and healthcare workers with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 have developed antibodies against COVID-19. We hope to compare antibody responses in these different groups of patients infected with COVID-19 and potentially use this data to guide antibody testing in the future.\n\nWe are recruiting patients and healthcare workers from the Whittington Health Trust who have a positive COVID-19 swab result and those with a negative COVID-19 swab result but a clinical suspicion of COVID-19. We will mainly use appropriate blood samples that are already stored in the laboratory. We will take up to three new blood samples from healthcare workers. \n\nIn order to assess the significance of our results, we need to test blood samples taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to check that the antibody test is negative for these samples. We will use blood samples already saved in the lab for reasons such as: antenatal booking bloods and blood taken from healthcare workers following needle stick injuries. \n\nFunding for this research will come from the Whittington Hospital Microbiology COVID-19 budget.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/YH/0193
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion