WHO Releases Guidelines on COVID-19 Research for Studying Community Spread, Antibodies

The World Health Organization has published information for COVID-19 researchers looking at antibodies in previously infected individuals to help gain a picture of community spread, the possibility of catching the novel virus twice, and to track other characteristics of the disease. If you or a company or research team you know is working on COVID-19 research, the following information may be useful as it is linked to more resources and related guidelines. Also, if you are not already following this page and would like to connect with updated information on this rapidly evolving aggregated set of guidelines and research studies, this is where WHO publishes guidelines for COVID-19 response. We hope it is helpful to you.

World Health Organization COVID-19 Research Guidelines

Early epidemiologic and clinical investigations are critical to carry out early in an outbreak of a new virus.

The recent emergence of COVID-19 means that understanding of transmission patterns, severity, clinical features and risk factors for infection remains limited, whether among the general population, for health workers or in household and other “closed” settings.

Studies to assess the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of cases in different settings are therefore critical to furthering our understanding of this virus and associated disease. They will also provide the robust information needed to refine the parameters to feed in forecasting models.

These protocols and forms have been designed so that data can be rapidly and systematically collected and shared in a format that facilitates aggregation, tabulation and analysis across different settings globally. We encourage any and all countries and study centres to contribute to this effort regardless of resource availability or patient volume. The ownership of the primary data remains firmly with the individual countries/sites.

Data collected using these investigation protocols will be critical to refine recommendations for case definitions and surveillance, characterize key epidemiological features of COVID-19, help understand spread, severity, spectrum of disease, and impact on the community and to inform guidance for application of countermeasures such as case isolation and contact tracing.

You can read more on the COVID-19 research guidelines here.

WHO's complete technical guidelines for responding to COVID-19 for all individuals and community and healthcare leaders is broken down by topic here.