Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2) and its disease, COVID-19, have caused unprecedented disruption globally since they were first described in China in December 2019. The OUCRU programme has felt the full force of that disruption, with severe lockdowns and waves of infection experienced repeatedly over the last 18 months in Viet Nam, Indonesia and Nepal. However, alongside the disruption has come opportunity, particularly the opportunity to conduct research that helps us understand the medical and social impact of the pandemic and improve the ways we control and treat the virus.

The entire OUCRU programme should be enormously proud of the way it has responded to the pandemic. The virus has brought us together. We have supported one another through many difficult periods when the virus seemed to threaten every aspect of our life and work, and we have found new ways to communicate and collaborate. The consequent research has been remarkable, not least because its conception and conduct has been in some of the most difficult circumstances any of us have ever experienced. We have addressed almost every important aspect of the pandemic, from its societal impact to viral genomic surveillance and COVID-19 therapy. Our work has fostered new collaborations with respective governments and their institutions that have ensured our research is relevant and impactful. These collaborations will have a lasting effect on OUCRU’s standing and future work within the region.

Sadly, the pandemic still has a long way to run. Vaccination in low- and middle-income countries lags behind the wealthier regions of the world – a major current failure of ‘global health’ – and the research questions are many and pressing. Here, we provide an overview of OUCRU’s research response – it gives a snapshot of the work conducted across the programme and one we will continually update. It is the product of an enormous quantity of work from many from across OUCRU. 

Of course, none of the work described would be possible without our key partners – The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the National Institute of Hygiene And Epidemiology in Hanoi, Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal, the Eijkman Institute and the University of Indonesia in Indonesia, and the University of Oxford, UK – and without the support from our funders, in particular the Wellcome Trust.     

Professor Guy Thwaites
Director 
Viet Nam Wellcome Africa Asia Programme
Oxford University Clinical Research Unit
Professor of Infectious Diseases, University of Oxford

Below is a list of Covid-19-related projects carried out from July 2020 – August 2021:

Randomised Controlled Trials

• The RECOVERY Trial – A Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy
• The COPCOV Study

Observational Clinical Studies

• Prediction of respiratory failure in COVID-19 infection and understanding pathophysiological mechanisms
• ISARIC Study: The natural history of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Viet Nam
• Clinical characteristics, management and disease outcomes of COVID-19 patients in Indonesia
• The impact of Covid-19 on pregnancy care and outcomes (CovPreg)
• Real-world assessment of the immunogenicity and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in Indonesia (INVITE Study)
• Advanced analytics of Covid-19 patient data to better define infection and outcomes  
• Evaluating clinical characteristics and mortality associated with COVID-19 in Jakarta, Indonesia

Diagnostic & Laboratory Studies

• Validation of SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis with RT-LAMP on FTA filter paper for remote sites in Indonesia
• Establishing the Southeast Asia Serological Surveillance Network (SASSNet) in Indonesia & Viet Nam
• Consortium for Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Sequence and Structure in LMICs
• Immunogenicity and safety of COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnamese healthcare workers
• Enhancing the utility of SARS-CoV-2 antibody rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for disease surveillance

Epidemiology & Modelling Studies

• Tracking all-cause mortality at the epicentre of Indonesia’s COVID-19 epidemic (TREMOR)
• Natural history of SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to influenza A virus
• Impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on TB, HIV, and childhood vaccination programmes in Indonesia
• Strengthening Preparedness in the Asia-Pacific Region through Knowledge – SPARK
• Covid-19 ICU burden
• A web-based application on contact tracing questionnaire
• Characterising the distribution of incubation time and latency time 
• The probability to remain asymptomatic and its dependence on age, sex and the presence of comorbidities 
• Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on vaccine uptake in Vietnam
• Optimizing the timing of the second dose of vaccine shot
• Evaluating mortality data to capture the dynamics of COVID-19 in Java, Indonesia

Social Science Studies

• COVID-19 Social Science and Public Engagement Action Research in Viet Nam, Indonesia and Nepal

Public & Community Engagement

• Public and community engagement response to Covid-19
• Combating Covid-19-related disinformation and fake news

Policy Engagement 

• Covid-19 and the gendered research gap
• Engaging with policymakers in the COVID-19 pandemic through an Outbreak Advisory Board
• Summary of Covid-19 press outputs 

To download PDF versions please click on the link below:

For English: Covid-19 Portfolio (2021)

For Vietnamese: Danh mục các dự án về Covid-19 (2021)

A summary of Vietnamese government regulations about COVID-19: MoH covid related documents