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Professor Guru Aithal and Dr Ana Valdes, are part of a Nottingham team researching NHS staff and COVID-19. Watch the BBC News report  on why staff from Nottingham University Hospitals are taking part. 

Healthcare workers are at higher risk of being infected by COVID-19 than the general population because of their contact with patients and the general public. Researchers in Nottingham want to know how many of our doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals have already had the virus. The research is also investigating if this is more common depending on any physical characteristics (age, ethnicity, presence of conditions like diabetes or hypertension) and also based on any substances in their blood (number of immune cells, levels of inflammation-related substances).

The research team is collecting blood from healthcare workers at Nottingahm University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). They are extracting serum from samples taken at regular intervals (every week) to test for antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 and measuring other substances in the blood. This will help to understand the risk of infection among front line NHS staff. Researchers are also undertaking a genotype to establish if there are any genetic characteristics that contribute to susceptibility for the disease.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham BRC are using the existing strong links with colleagues at at NUH to develop this study. It has also been informed by research undertaken at the University of Nottingham's Ningbo China campus.