Yearlong Corona Virus study in frontline workers

Fifteen hundred frontline workers are being recruited for a yearlong study to find what percentage are positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, what percentage become positive and whether the antibodies they produce protect them from reinfection.

“Once you get infected does your body have the capacity to prevent reinfection and for how long are important bottom-line questions,” says Dr. Ravindra Kolhe, director of the Georgia Esoteric and Molecular (GEM) Laboratory, and vice chair for translational research in the Medical College of Georgia Department of Pathology.

Frontline workers will get initial testing for the virus, then biweekly follow-up testing for the virus as well as antibodies in the blood and/or saliva that indicate the body is fighting the infection, says Kolhe, principal investigator on the federally funded study at Augusta University.

Kolhe’s study is among four National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-funded projects totaling $1.9 million called the SARS2 SeroPrevalence And Respiratory Tract Assessment, or SPARTA, study at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, MCG and Augusta University Health System, the University of California, Los Angeles and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.