Since April 2020, Imperial College London has been leading a major home testing programme for COVID-19.
Commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and carried out in partnership with IpsosMORI and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission programme (REACT) has been instrumental in tracking the progress of the infection across England. Accurate, wide-scale testing has been key in guiding public health strategies for the disease.
The programme has two main arms, both of which involve mass community self-testing of hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country. REACT 1 analyses throat and nose swab samples to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 and the breakdown across different demographics and regions. REACT 2 has been assessing a number of antibody finger-prick tests for accuracy and ease of use at home, and using the best test in nation-wide surveillance surveys to explore how far the infection has spread across England.
The REACT programme has also been working with thousands of public volunteers to understand if people can successfully carry out these tests at home and inform the design of the testing packs.
In the first IGHI Global Health Forum of this year, we’ll be taking a closer look at the REACT programme and hearing from key scientists and researchers leading the study. The event is an opportunity to understand how the study has evolved and become an important part of efforts in the response to COVID-19 in England.
Speakers include:
Chair: Professor Wendy Barclay, Action Medical Research Chair Virology. Head of Department, Department of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine
Professor Paul Elliott, Director of the programme at Imperial, Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine
Professor Graham Cooke, Professor of Infectious Diseases, Department of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine
Dr Philippa Pristerà, Research Associate & Public Involvement Adviser, Patient Experience Research Centre
Streaming link – join us here.
(https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDMyYjUzMWItYjkwNi00ZDJhLWJiMmUtNGZlOTMwZGExNTcw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%222b897507-ee8c-4575-830b-4f8267c3d307%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%224339b501-b2f9-4a76-871a-a5f11064fa8c%22%7d)