Scientists based in Derry call on people who had Covid-19 to help with study

Ulster University scientists at the NI Centre for Stratified Medicine at C-TRIC have called on people who contracted Covid-19 to assist them with an ongoing study.

Scientists are currently involved in a project called COVRES with a cross border partner in Trinity College Dublin, which intends to recruit 500 patients from Northern Ireland and 500 patients from Ireland who have tested positive for Covid-19.

This will include 250 patients who had mild symptoms and 250 patients who were hospitalised to determine if the patients genetics has a key role in disease severity and will also examine other factors such as co morbidities and multi morbidities etc.

This is a huge project which involves genomic sequencing of patients DNA to understand why some people experience mild symptoms while others react more severely. But we need more participants in this, the last week of recruitment.

The facts:

Overall, approximately 80% of people who experience mild symptoms recover without any specific treatment.
However, almost 20% exhibit severe disease, rapidly progressing over 7-10 days following symptom onset.
Risk factors for COVID-19 severity include age, male sex, obesity, diabetes, occupational exposure and ethnicity.
The amount of severe (hospitalized) COVID-19 patients in NI who go on to experience longer term health consequences is poorly understood.

Call to action

Are you in the Derry~Londonderry area and have had COVID-19? Ulster University researchers at C-TRIC at Altnagelvin need you this week. We also have test sites at Jordanstown and Coleraine this week.
All welcome but we are particularly interested in those over 65 years old.
We are also interested in anyone who has been hospitalised with COVID-19 regardless of age.
We will ask you to provide a blood and saliva sample.  All appropriate health and safety measures are in place.
We ask that only those who have reached the end of their COVID-19 isolation period attend research appointments.

Participants can register at https://redcap.science.ulster.ac.uk/redcap/surveys/?s=FHHK8EHHCM or email: researchplus@westerntrust.hscni.net and phone number 07768600793.