On 29th of July 2024, the highly respected Italian Nespaper “Il Sole 24 ORE” published a piece called “Guida Progetti Europei”, where European projects with Italian partners have been reported.
The published guide accomplished to deliver a very important and impactful resume about the EuCARE project highlighting the main research focuses and its results. Furthermore, the article described the project collaborations established and the partners involved.
This insightful piece explains the worked carried out on the different work packages, going from the study of the role of variants to determine clinical evidence of SARS-CoV-2 which includes the different clinical cohorts (Hospitalized, Healthcare workers, PASC) and the study of the spread of the virus in schools which includes the schools cohort, developed by the multidisciplinary researchers involved in this project.
As Professor Maurizio Zazzi, partner from University of Siena, said “This is a vast database available for research studies, in compliance with regulations. Together with the library of live viral variants curated by us at the University of Siena, it constitutes an important asset not only for the project but for the international scientific community”.
The project has already delivered valuable insights in the impact of SARS-COV-2 variants in various areas. For long COVID, the EuCARE study showed that the Omicron variant is associated with a lower risk of developing this condition compared to the original virus (WT), but at the same time long COVID is still a major health concern as Professor Giulia Marchetti, partner of the University of Milan, says – “However, the problem of the trajectories of long COVID over time remains open and EuCARE research is focusing on this aspect: whether the consequences of COVID-19 can remain a long-term clinical problem, with what clinical manifestations, and what the treatments can be”.
Besides the clinical research, the EuCARE project also looked for the impact of schools closure and the psychosocial effects on the children, as Professor Sara Gandini, partner from IEO, explains “For example, in secondary schools, greater overall psychological difficulties were found than in primary schools. Girls reported more emotional problems than boys, while the latter were found to have more hyperactivity problems. Furthermore, it emerged that distance learning was associated with an increase in peer relationship problems.” As for the school closures the “Lolli-Methode” showed a good adherence as epidemiologist Francesco Vairo, partner from Spallanzani INMI points out “The group salivary screening “Lolli-Methode”, for example, seems to be a well-accepted tool that can support the control of infection in such environments”.
More importantly, the EuCARE project also identified key points that could help a better response to future pandemics, Francesca Incardona CEO of EuResist Network and coordinator of the project, highlights “Only through a study of real data can we propose measures that are both effective and ethically acceptable. Finally, one of the important “lessons learned” from the study is a concept that is perhaps counter-current but based on experience and widely adopted, for example, in engineering fields to ensure safety: the need for a certain amount of redundancy of personnel and structures in the healthcare system to be able to deal with large load peaks due to emergency situations”.
This article piece shows how crucial research is, in their different topics, and the various lessons that could be learned from different projects and different research mechanisms. At the same time, it is very important to recognize the EuCARE mention on a high and respected newspaper among the Italian community.
See the full article at the link!