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Detect Novel Pathogens and Characterize Emerging Infections

NCT01979705 · Status: UNKNOWN · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 100

Last updated 2017-10-06

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Infectious disease is the single biggest cause of death worldwide. New infectious agents,such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus and new strains of influenza continually emerge and require new investigations to understand pathogen biology and pathogenesis in the host. Witness the Influenza A pandemic. Concerns about new viruses and their impact on health and the economy are also increasing. Current alerts sent out by the Ministry of Health (about the novel coronavirus and the Avian influenza A virus) are but cases in point. These likely reflect advances in science, which have allowed novel pathogens to be identified.

Because of its geography, Singapore is vulnerable to new pathogens through importation or the global travel of its citizens. Hence we must be ever ready to meet unexpected challenges anytime.

On the administrative front, Singapore General Hospital has a Disease Outbreak Task-force which has in place many plans that can be activated should there be a large-scale epidemic.

What is missing thus far is a program that will enable us to perform scientific studies in the setting of an epidemic. Hence in this study, we will, in collaboration with the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) in Duke-National University of Singapore Postgraduate Medical School, attempt to (i) detect novel, previously undescribed pathogens; (ii) characterize viruses (not necessarily novel but emerging and re-emerging) that are raising concern or causing clusters or epidemics in the hospital and/or country; (iii) characterize immune responses to such viruses in healthcare workers as well as patients (those affected by these viruses and those exposed to the affected). The techniques that will be used will be those not routinely available in a hospital's service labs.

Some patients will remain undiagnosable with the best available technology. Since new laboratory tools that can detect previously undiagnosed pathogens may become available in the future, the study also aims to archive specimens from patients whose illnesses remain undiagnosed.

Conditions

  • Prospective Studies

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Singapore General Hospital

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Tan Ban Hock · Singapore General Hospital

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2013-08-31
Primary Completion
2020-01-31
Completion
2020-06-30

Countries

  • Singapore

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01979705 on ClinicalTrials.gov