GCU epidemiologists Dr Norah Palmateer and Dr Andrew McAuley are leading an NHS Public Health Scotland (PHS) enhanced surveillance team to find out how many people have been exposed to COVID-19.
Senior Research Fellow Dr Palmateer and Reader Dr McAuley, who is currently Consultant Scientist within the Blood Borne Virus and Sexually Transmitted Infections team at PHS, are co-leads of the serology workstream.
The serology worksteam is part of Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 at Public Health Scotland and consists of a group of data managers, analysts, admin and project manager.
Dr Palmateer explained: “The aim of the workstream is to estimate the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in the general population in Scotland – in other words, we are trying to gauge how many people have been exposed to COVID-19.
“We do this though testing residual samples (i.e. blood samples that have originally been collected for other purposes) – these are from primary care and blood donors.
“Andy and I are pleased to be able to use our expertise to support national surveillance of COVID-19 for PHS, Scotland’s national public health agency, during the COVID pandemic. GCU staff contribution to this work builds on a history of collaboration between GCU and PHS – this surveillance will assist Scottish Government with the national response to the pandemic.”
The workstream publishes weekly data weekly on a public-facing dashboard Enhanced surveillance of COVID-19 in Scotland 13 January 2021 – Data & intelligence from PHS (isdscotland.org) and research from their early phase has been published https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cPCx7bKBu5P-
Be First to Comment