Lincolnshire hospitals among the first to join ground-breaking COVID-19 research

Hospital staff in Lincolnshire will be among the first to take part in a ground-breaking national research project looking at immunity and other unanswered questions around COVID-19.

Public Health England has launched the SIREN trial which will track NHS staff from across the country, with blood and throat swabs taken regularly over 18-months.

This will help researchers to better understand the true prevalence of the virus and will also improve scientific knowledge about the body’s response to COVID-19.  It hopes to do this by identifying anyone who has the virus, whether they develop antibodies, how long any antibodies may last for and if they contract COVID-19 again.

There is currently no firm evidence to suggest that having the antibodies means the carrier is immune to COVID-19 or that they can no longer transmit the virus to others.  SIREN will try to answer some of these questions.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) patients have already been enrolling onto a range of COVID-19 research studies, now the Research and Innovation Department are offering 250 Trust staff the chance to take part in this ground-breaking national COVID-19 research.

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