This week marks a special milestone as we celebrate EuCARE’s 3rd birthday with an important achievement — we’ve just submitted 10 high-quality deliverables, covering critical aspects of our research!
Here are a few highlights:
1️⃣ SARS-CoV-2 Variants Library: The Library of SARS-CoV-2 variants is periodically updated along with SARS-CoV-2 evolution over time to include newly emergent variants. So far it includes 61 SARS-CoV-2 variants including the currently dominating Omicron KP.3 lineage.
2️⃣ Co-Infection Risks: During the past year EuCARE conducted a cohort study of both bacterial and viral co-infections in around 30,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Evidence indicates that the occurrence of co-infections has increased since the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and is associated with an increased risk of in-hospital mortality compared to having no verified co-infection.
3️⃣ Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC): A subset of the EuCARE HOSPITALIZED cohort, including hospitalized patients, and outpatients with mild to moderate SARS-CoV-2 infections was used to explore the role of the different viral variants in the Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC). The results suggested that the reduction in PCC burden may be associated with the Omicron phase of the pandemic and those who acquired their first infection with a variant subsequent to the ancestor Wuhan strain are also less likely to have persistent PCC, even though approximately 30% of participants still had persistent PCC 1 year post diagnosis.
4️⃣ SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: The results of the SCHOOLS studies within the EuCARE project, focusing on the use of the pooled saliva screening method “Lolli Methode” and on SARS-CoV-2 variants as the key factors of interest were evaluated. The Lolli Methode was proved to allow early variant detection and effectiveness in monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in educational institutions and in mitigating the risk of outbreak clusters.
5️⃣ AI-Based Research: Innovations in AI helped develop models predicting COVID-19 severity, analyzing infection risks, and studying the impact of interventions on PASC outcomes.
These achievements mark another step forward in our mission to combat infectious diseases and improve global health. Stay tuned for more updates!