Rho, a full-service contract research organization (CRO), announced its Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 (HEROS) study, to help determine the rate of the new coronavirus infection in children and their families in the U.S. has been extended through April 2022. During the first year of the study, over 1,900 households containing close to 6,000 study participants were enrolled. The study is being conducted to determine what percentage of children infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, develop symptoms of the disease, as well as whether rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection differ between children who have asthma or other allergic conditions and children who do not. 

“Over the last year, our team has focused on doing its part to help understand the effect COVID-19 has on children, especially those with asthma and allergies,” said Dr. Laura Helms Reece, CEO, Rho. “We are pleased the NIAID has granted Rho an extension on such an important study. Our team is excited to complete this two-year study. The insights from this study should help improve public health and we are delighted to contribute.”

The following goals and tasks to be accomplished in year two include:

• Provide project management support for the study

• Clean and lock study databases/ create analysis datasets for statistical analyses.

• Provide data management, statistical programming, and statistical support for manuscripts.

• Work with NIAID and Vanderbilt University in obtaining historic study data on the index participants from the clinical sites from which these participants were identified and recruited, merge the historic study data with the current study database, and provide support for the analyses of these databases.

• Maintain and continue to manage any stored biological samples with third-party vendor.

• Manage the submission of four of the nine manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals, with the remainder being submitted by lead authors.

• Provide study databases to shared data platform, ImmPORT, for public access.