uOttawa in studies investigating why COVID-19 devastation of long-term care residents

Long-term care facilities have been disproportionately burdened by COVID-19, accounting for about 60% of COVID-19 deaths nationwide, 70% if retirement homes are included. Not only are residents of these facilities particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 given their advanced age, reduced immune system capacity, and multiple underlying health conditions, but staff also face an increased risk of infection.

Investigators from the the University of Ottawa and Bruyere Research Institute have been awarded $3.5 million in funding for their cross-provincial study.

“Over the course of one year, we will study the immune response of workers and residents in long-term care homes across Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia,” explains Amy Hsu, PhD, Investigator at the Bruyere Research Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine.

The team will recruit over 3,500 residents and 2,500 workers from long-term care facilities in all three provinces and ask them for blood samples over several months. Their goal is to gain insight into how various immunity factors, such as antibodies, react to COVID-19 and/or vaccines.

“We will compare the immune response in individuals who previously had COVID-19, those who got vaccinated, and those who have not been infected,” explains co-principal investigator Marc-Andre Langlois, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology and Intrinsic Immunity.

“By linking the information that we find from analyzing their blood to healthcare data, we will be able to follow individuals over time to look at their long-term outcomes following an infection and the duration of protection they get from a complete series of a COVID-19 vaccine. We will track the occurrence of adverse events and serious illness over time. More specifically, we will be closely analyzing the subgroup of antibodies, called virus neutralizing antibodies, that protect against new infections,” says Langlois, who helped initiate Stop the Spread Ottawa, an initiative aimed at accelerating vaccine development against the novel coronavirus that has transformed our way of life.

“We will use an app called CANImmunize, which is a pan-Canadian digital immunization tracking application developed by study co-applicant, Dr. Kumanan Wilson (Professor, Faculty of Medicine). We’ve modified it a little for long-term care facilities to allow each participant to have a record of which vaccine they received, when, and how long it was between their first and second dose,” explains Dr. Hsu. “We currently don’t have a tracking system for vaccines in long-term care in Canada. This platform will allow us to better track vaccinations in long-term care facilities in the future.”

The Government of Canada, through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), is providing a total of $8.5 million to support two studies investigating various aspects of immunity and people’s response to vaccines within long-term care facilities. The second study from St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto will include people in 72 long term care homes in the Greater Toronto Area and the Ottawa-Champlain region.

“These studies investigate the factors that have contributed to COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on those living and working in long-term care facilities across the country,” states Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam. “Their results will support strategies to better protect residents and staff in these facilities.”

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About the University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa is home to over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We are one of Canada’s top 10 research universities–our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today’s challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe.

http://www.uottawa.ca

About Bruyere

Bruyere provides a wide range of health services within its hospitals and long-term care homes in Ottawa. As an academic health care organization, Bruyere specializes in care of the elderly through rehabilitation, palliative care, brain health, and complex continuing care. The Bruyere Research Institute supports investigators who contribute to a better, more responsive health care system that delivers the best care to patients, residents and families. To learn more, visit http://www.bruyere.org.

About the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force

In late April 2020, the Government of Canada established the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force with a two-year mandate. The Task Force is overseen by a Leadership Group of volunteers that includes leading Canadian scientists and experts from universities and healthcare facilities across Canada who are focused on understanding the nature of immunity arising from the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. To that end, the CITF is supporting numerous studies to determine the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Canada (in the general population as well as in specific communities and priority populations), understand the nature of immunity following infection, develop improved antibody testing methods, and help monitor the effectiveness and safety of vaccines as they are rolled out across Canada. The Task Force and its Secretariat accordingly work closely with a range of partners, including governments, public health agencies, institutions, health organizations, research teams, other task forces, and engages communities and stakeholders from inception through to dissemination of findings.

http://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca