Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital recruits 1st patient in UK to RSV study

Greater Manchester has successfully recruited the first UK participant to a study focused on preventing disease from a highly infectious virus. 

The study relates to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which infects the lungs and breathing passages. 

In newborn babies and young infants, RSV bronchiolitis is the most common, severe lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). RSV is also a significant cause of respiratory illness in the elderly. Across the world, every two seconds someone is infected with RSV and every five seconds a child is hospitalised.

The research team at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH), part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, recruited the first UK participant in a Phase 1/2a study shortly after their site was initiated.  They are one of three participating sites in the UK, along with Churchill Hospital in Oxford and Southampton General Hospital.

The randomised, double-blind study is sponsored by Janssen Vaccines and Prevention, B.V. 

The study has been designed to assess the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine in adults aged 18 to 50 and RSV-experienced toddlers aged 12 to 24 months. 

The study is on the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) portfolio.

The RMCH team has been assisted by CRN Greater Manchester, with research nurse Heather Edwards taking on the role of lead nurse. Heather formed part of the blinded team, along with Principal Investigator Dr Stephen Hughes, consultant immunologist at RMCH. Research nurses on the Children’s Clinical Research Facility (CCRF) have formed the unblinded team, who make up the Investigational Medicinal Product.

Heather Edwards said:

This has been a complex study to set up, so it has been very much a team effort between CRN GM, the children’s team, the CCRF, the labs and pharmacy to recruit the first UK toddler in this study.