Infectious Diseases

The Infectious Disease (ID) Research team is dedicated to focus on research which will discover better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent infectious diseases and aspire to have a considerable impact on the practice of clinical medicine, including changes in national and international policy and recommendations on the treatment and prevention of diseases. The main areas of research are HIV, sexual health, health and most recently COVID-19. The team comprises of clinical investigators, research nurses and nurse specialist.

Current research studies include a Multi-center, Canadian, Non-interventional, Cohort Study of the Effectiveness, Safety, Adherence, and Health-related Quality of Life in HIV-1 Infected Adult Patients Receiving Bictegravir/ Emtricitabine/Tenofovir Alafenamide (BIC-STaR).

 In early 2020 there were no approved anti-viral treatments for COVID-19 Infection. The SOLIDARITY trial is a multicentre adaptive international randomised trial sponsored by Word Health Organization to determine the efficacy of Remdevir (daily infusion for 10 days), or Acalabrutinib (orally twice daily for 10 days), or Interferon β1a (daily injection for 6 days) compared with local standard of care in patients admitted to hospital for COVID19 infection on all-cause mortality, stratified by severity of disease at the time of randomisation. The major secondary outcomes are duration of hospital stay and time to first receiving ventilation (or intensive care).

This reseach is led by Dr Catherine Fleming.