Hundreds of Newcastle hospital staff have spent two years taking part in one of the country's biggest Covid-19 studies - alongside their work on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The staffers from across the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust's workforce - from porters to consultants - have been undergoing fortnightly Covid-19 testing and regular blood tests for more than two years. Part of the SIREN study, standing for "SARS-CoV2- Immunity and Reinfection Evaluation Study", the members of staff have helped scientists understand how Covid immunity works and how effective vaccines can be.
The SIREN study is the biggest of its kind with more than 45,000 participants around the UK and has been running at 135 NHS sites across the UK. Dr Brendan Payne, an infectious diseases consultant at the Trust said: "We are so grateful to every member of staff who took part in the SIREN study. They kindly volunteered their time despite working through incredibly challenging circumstances.
“I also owe a huge thank you to all the teams involved in helping to set-up the study within tight timescales and while under immense pressure. The successful running of the study is testament to the teams’ hard work and commitment.” Dr Payne said that the study had played a "vital part" in monitoring Covid-19's spread. He said it would also "play an important role in the coming winter months".
One participant, hospital porter William Jarrett, said: ''In such a distressing period of public unease about Covid, it made perfect sense to participate in a study which served us all by testing to ensure staff remained free of the virus or at least confirmed if we had it, to protect service users and ourselves.
"SIREN enhanced our ability to serve our patients and wider society by identifying the presence of COVID through testing and contributing to scientific understanding of the illness.'"
Across 69 different Covid-19 studies, the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust has involved a mammoth 6,000 patients in urgent public research since March 2020 - that's in the top three nationally. In a blog marking the second anniversary of the study, the UK Health Security Agency's Susan Hopkins said the study had helped answer "the most important questions" about Covid-19 and immunity.
She added: "As community testing has reduced, the surveillance role of SIREN in monitoring infection trends and emerging variants has become increasingly important to inform the national COVID-19 response.
"SIREN will have an important function throughout the coming Winter while the NHS deals with seasonal pressures, with influenza, seasonal viruses and resulting staff absence. Going forward we will maintain our commitment to addressing vital research questions. What is the impact of new variants? What effect does reinfection have post vaccination? What is the impact of COVID-19 vaccine booster programmes?"
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