Projects

A summary of key projects from members and collaborators of the group.

Members and collaborators of the group lead a number of significant research programmes globally.  These include:

RESCEU (REspiratory Syncytial Virus Consortium in EUrope)

Professor Harish Nair is Project Coordinator of the consortium of 18 global partners and leader of workpackages 1 and 2.

RESCEU’s vision is to integrate and exploit existing knowledge and data to provide greater insights into the impact of RSV on health systems and societies throughout Europe, and to actively engage stakeholders in order to improve strategic planning and decision-making.

RESPIRE (NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health )

Professor Harry Campbell is Co-Director of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health.

Professor Harish Nair Co-leads Programme 1 - acute respiratory conditions.

RESPIRE aims to reduce morbidity/ mortality through implementation research to improve the prevention and management of acute and chronic respiratory disorders accounting for high disease burden in South Asia; and to work with our partners in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Pakistan to achieve a step-change in national research capacity to undertake applied respiratory research.

RSV GEN (RSV Global Epidemiology Network)

Professor Harish Nair is RSV GEN Coordinator.

RSVGEN coordinates >70 research groups globally to describe global respiratory viral epidemiology and disease burden (influenza, RSV, hMPV, PIF)

Key recent publications:

1. Shi T et al. Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of ALRI due to RSV in young children in 2015. Lancet. 2017; 390: 946-958.
2. Scheltema NM et al. Global respiratory syncytial virus-associated mortality in young children (RSV GOLD): a retrospective case series. Lancet Glob Health. 2017; 5: e984-e991

MCEE (Maternal and Child Epidemiology Estimates)

Professor Harish Nair is technical lead for respiratory infections.

MCEE (formerly WHO CHERG) have established global burden of disease estimates for all major causes of child deaths, including respiratory infections and viral and bacterial causes of respiratory infections

Key recent publications:

1. McAllister D et al. Global, regional and national estimates of trends in child pneumonia morbidity and mortality for 2000−2015: a systematic analysis. Lancet Global Health. 2018 (in press)
2. Wahl B et al. Burden of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Hib disease in children in the era of conjugate vaccines: global, regional, and national estimates for 2000-15. Lancet Glob Health. 2018; 6: e744-e757

DIVERGE (Diversity in RSV Genomes)

Dr Thomas Williams is Principal Investigator, Professors Harish Nair and Harry Campbell are Co-Investigators

DIVERGE aims to describe global diversity of RSV genomes; relate RSV genetic variability to clinical presentation; establish a genomic variability baseline (initially in Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Morocco, Mozambique, and Nicaragua) to map post-vaccine changes and determine whether RSV clades show variable virulence or clinical presentation