UoB launches a £2.2 million research project to improve the treatment of long Covid

The university has recently launched a new £2.2 million research project to improve the treatment, symptoms and causes of long Covid in non-hospitalised patients. This two year project is funded by the government through the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation.

The research into long Covid is significant as one in ten people with coronavirus continue to have symptoms after 12 weeks, including chest pain, insomnia and extreme tiredness.

Clinical academics at the university have been involved in more than 100 clinical papers, among them include describing those most at risk of contracting coronavirus.

Principal Investigator Dr Shamil Haroon, Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Birmingham, said: “People living with Long COVID have indicated that they feel abandoned and dismissed by healthcare providers, and receive limited or conflicting advice.”

Dr Shamil Haroon, continued to suggest why this research into long Covid is necessary. “Meanwhile, neither the biological or immunological mechanisms of Long COVID, nor the rationale for why certain people are more susceptible to these effects, are yet clear, limiting development of therapies.  It’s essential we act quickly to address these issues.”

“It is clear that there is an urgent need for research to help explain the causes that drive the longer-term health effects of COVID-19 so that we can optimise patient care,” Co-Principal Investigator Melanie Calvert, Professor of Outcomes Methodology commented.

“Our study aims to reduce their symptom burden and improve quality of life,” she continued.

Other areas of research from the university during the pandemic include research on BAME patients.

The university commented “This has included establishing the increased risk of BAME patients being admitted to hospital.”

This is not the first intervention the university has made during the pandemic, at the start of the crisis, the university’s scientists converted their labs into hand sanitiser factories.

The university produced over 1,000 bottles and 70 litres of hand sanitiser within two days back in March 2020.

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