Researchers studying rates of Covid-19 among healthcare workers

The Evaluation to Inform Response (SAFER) study, which is being run at UCLH and Royal Liverpool University Hospital, has recruited staff from Accident and Emergency, the Adult Medical Admissions Unit, the Infectious Diseases ward, the Intensive Care Unit and Haematology Services.

Staff enrolling on the study will have baseline and monthly serological testing – blood testing measuring the body’s immune response to infection – for 3 months, and twice-weekly nose and throat swabs for upper respiratory tract viral infections. Samples will be tested retrospectively, offering results to staff at least 2 months after the end of the study.

Researchers will also interview healthcare workers on their experience of working during the outbreak and how they perceive the risks to themselves and their families.

By looking at staff who are symptomatic and asymptomatic for respiratory tract symptoms whilst at work, and the proportion who have SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers hope they will be able to better understand staff health and safety, hospital infection prevention and control, and improve the evidence-base for the protection of patients and staff from outbreaks and epidemics of respiratory infections.

The investigators in the study funded by the Medical Research Council and UK Research and Innovation aim to influence policies for NHS staff management during the pandemic with preliminary analyses and importantly produce definitive data on how best to protect staff during future epidemics.

Lead researcher Dr Eleni Nastouli, Head of Virology at UCLH, said: “I am delighted the MRC/UKRI are giving us the unique opportunity to inform best practice for staff management during the pandemic. Co-investigators Andrew Hayward, Susan Michie, Ed Manley and Sarah Edwards are leaders in healthcare research in their fields and we are confident we can rapidly assist our colleagues by delivering excellent research. The project stems from our core clinical practice within Virology and Occupational Health at UCLH and would have been impossible without Catherine Houlihan, my talented colleague who just joined UCLH, and our Virology Team, Nina Vora, Jude Heaney and Mozza Spyer. I would like to thank all the wonderful UCLH staff for making this possible!”