Healthy young people to be re-infected with Covid for new study

Healthy young people who have previously been infected with Covid-19 are being asked to volunteer for a trial which will deliberately expose them to the virus.

The experts conducting the study, which will begin this month, are looking to see how the immune system copes second time around, with the ultimate aim being to design better vaccines and treatment.

During the trial, up to 64 people aged between 18 and 30 will spend 17 days in a quarantine unit at a hospital suite and undergo numerous tests, including lung scans. They will be re-exposed to the virus, the original strain from Wuhan, China, in a “safe and controlled environment” while the medical team monitors their health.

Professor Helen McShane from the University of Oxford and chief investigator of the study, said “Challenge studies tell us things that other studies cannot because, unlike natural infection, they are tightly controlled.

“When we reinfect these participants, we will know exactly how their immune system has reacted to the first Covid infection, exactly when the second infection occurs, and exactly how much virus they got.

“As well as enhancing our basic understanding, this may help us to design tests that can accurately predict whether people are protected.”

Professor Lawrence Young of Warwick University, said “Human challenge studies have a long history of being able to generate important information about infections under strictly controlled conditions as well as allow the efficacy of vaccination to be accurately assessed.

“They will significantly improve our understanding of the dynamics of virus infection and of the immune response as well as provide valuable information to help with the ongoing design of vaccines and the development of anti-viral therapies.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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