The Children's HIV and AIDS Reporting System (CHARS) continues the important long-term paediatric HIV follow-up previously carried out by the Collaborative HIV Paediatric Study (CHIPS).
The purpose of CHARS is to monitor outcomes and quality of services and to contribute to national epidemiological monitoring. The main objectives of the paediatric HIV surveillance are to:
- Provide data for public health surveillance of HIV infections among children living with HIV
- Monitor the quality of care of children living with HIV until transition to adult services, including producing quality of care indicators
- Support NHS commissioning services
CHARS collects on-going clinical and other health information on children living with HIV in England for NHS England. All data are collected with Regulation 3 approval.
CHARS is based at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, alongside the Integrated Screening Outcomes Surveillance Service (ISOSS)
Surveillance covers follow-up of all infants and children seen for paediatric HIV care in England
Data collection is submitted via quarterly reports using a secure online portal
Timely data collection supports quality of care indicators and commissioning of NHS services
The CHARS team will be working closely with our colleagues at Chiva
Amanda Ely, CEO Chiva says:
"We are very pleased that the important work collecting long-term data of children and young people growing up with HIV will continue and welcome the launch of CHARS. We're looking forward to working with the team and thankful to NHS professionals for completing the reports in order that we can better understand the needs and experiences of children and young people with HIV."
For further information please contact the CHARS Team via Email chars@ucl.ac.uk
Meet the Team
Left to right: Helen Peters, Gabriela Toledo, Stella Georgiou, Kate Francis, Corinne Hill
CHARS collects on-going clinical and other health information of children living with HIV in England for NHS England and supports the UK Health Security Agency's National Infection Service. All data are collected with Regulation 3 approval.