BBB webinar: Rebecca Jane Cox

Rebecca Jane Cox
Influenza Centre, Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen

The first case of COVID-19 infection was identified in Bergen on 28th February 2020 prior to the declaration of a pandemic on 12th March. Rigorous testing of all suspected cases in the community was centralised in Bergen providing a unique opportunity to study the pandemic. Building on our experience from the swine influenza pandemic, our consortium covering the community, hospitals and universities aims to understand key clinical, epidemiological, and immunological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population, hospitalised patients and frontline healthcare workers (HCW). We commenced our study on 6th March collecting baseline pre-exposure and demographics data and blood samples from over 1000 HCW. These HCW have been followed up at 2, 6 and 12 months for infection and exposure history. In the community, clinical symptoms and blood samples have been collected from all SARS-CoV-2 positive cases and their household / close contacts in the first wave of the pandemic to investigate household attack rates. This talk will present the initial immunological and epidemiological findings from our study.

Chairperson: Jaakko Saraste, Department of Biomedicine